Battle of Buckland Mills

Battle of Buckland Mills
Part of American Civil War
Date October 19, 1863 (1863-10-19) Location Fauquier County, Virginia Result Confederate victory
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Hugh Judson Kilpatrick	J.E.B. Stuart
Casualties and losses
230

The Battle of Buckland Mills, also known as The Buckland Races or Chestnut Hill, was fought on October 19, 1863, between Union and Confederate forces in the American Civil War. Union cavalry led by Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick were caught in a Confederate ambush and defeated.

Near Buckland Mills, on Broad Run, Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, with Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton's cavalry division, were covering Gen. Robert E. Lee's retirement from his defeat at Bristoe to the Rappahannock River. On October 19, they turned on Kilpatrick's pursuing Federal cavalry, while Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's division charged the Federal flank. Kilpatrick was routed, fleeing five miles to Haymarket and Gainesville. The Confederates derisively called the affair "The Buckland Races", although some Confederate commanders likened it to a fox hunt.

Corporal William A. Freed of Company E, 1st Virginia Cavalry, wrote home from Culpeper after the battle: "We had a hard fight day before yesterday with Gen Killpatrick's Division at Buckland and we gave them one of the worst whippings they ever had, took a great many prisoners, killed a great many and ran them near to Gaynes Mill."

References

• Adams, James Truslow, Dictionary of American History, New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1940.
• National Park Service battle description
• CWSAC Report Update and Resurvey: Individual Battlefield Profiles
• Freed quote from personal letter dated 10/21/1863, property of the Freed family

Coordinates: 38°46′29″N 77°41′31″W / 38.7747°N 77.692°W / 38.7747; -77.692

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