3. Several cavalry battles took place early in the Gettysburg Campaign of 1863
In early June 1863, Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia faced Joseph Hooker’s Army of the Potomac near Fredericksburg, Virginia. Lee had dealt the Union a crushing defeat at Chancellorsville a month earlier. To exploit his victory and further dampen Union morale, he decided to launch a second invasion of the North, relieving the pressure on the two armies in Virginia. His movement began on June 3, 1863. As his units moved to the North, using the Blue Ridge Mountains as a screen for his infantry and baggage trains, Hooker began a cautious pursuit. Lee dispatched the cream of his cavalry, under General Jeb Stuart, to keep him apprised of the movements of the Federals. Stuart began a lengthy cavalry raid, which included several battles with Union Cavalry detachments, but provided Lee with little intelligence regarding the main Union army.
Among them was the well-known Battle of Brandy Station, one of the largest cavalry fights of the war. These cavalry actions provided Hooker with the knowledge that Lee was moving his army to the north and west of Fredericksburg, but rather than pursuing it, Hooker suggested attacking Richmond. An exasperated President Lincoln reminded his commanding general that the destruction of Lee’s army should be his highest priority. Not until mid-June did Hooker’s army begin moving north of the Rappahannock River after he was ordered to interpose his army between Lee’s and Washington. On June 16, Hooker ordered his cavalry under General Alfred Pleasanton to drive back the Confederate cavalry screen and locate the bulk of Lee’s army. Over the ensuing three days, relatively small but hard-fought cavalry battles occurred to the north and west of Manassas in Virginia’s Loudon Valley.