Rappahannock Station was a Civil War engagement fought in Virginia, 1863. The outcome was inconclusive.
On November 7, the Union army forced passage of the Rappahannock River at two places. A dusk attack overran the Confederate bridgehead at Rappahannock Station, capturing more than 1,600 men of Jubal Early's Division. Fighting at Kelly's Ford was less severe with about 430 casualties, but the Confederates retreated allowing the Federals across in force. On the verge of going into winter quarters around Culpeper, Lee's army retired instead into Orange County south of the Rapidan River. The Army of the Potomac occupied the vicinity of Brandy Station and Culpeper County.
On November 7, 1863, fighting broke out along the Orange and Alexandria Railroad close to the village of Rappahannock Station, a place known today as Remington, Virginia. This clash pitted Confederate troops led by Maj. Gen. Jubal Early against Union forces commanded by Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, forming part of the larger Bristoe Campaign fought during the American Civil War. When the fighting ended, the Union side had claimed victory.
The fighting proved brief but devastating for the Confederates, who lost 1,670 men killed, wounded, or captured, a toll representing better than eighty percent of those committed to the fight. Union losses paled by comparison, totaling only 419.
From the Northern perspective, the outcome was described as a triumph both complete and glorious, a clash whose brevity matched its decisiveness and one that brought great honor to everyone involved. Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright observed that this marked the first time Union soldiers had overrun a heavily fortified Confederate line on their initial charge. Brig. Gen. Harry Hays insisted his men had faced somewhere between 20,000 and 25,000 attackers, a wild exaggeration roughly ten times greater than the true number of Union troops present.
What brought celebration to one side brought disgrace to the other. A pair of the South's most respected brigades, positioned within earthworks and backed by substantial artillery support, found themselves overwhelmed and taken prisoner by a force no larger than their own. Col. Walter H. Taylor, serving on Lee's staff, described it afterward as the most sorrowful episode this army had ever endured, blaming the disaster on management that was, in his words, thoroughly wretched. A common soldier summed things up with blunt simplicity, admitting he understood little of the details but sensed that his army had simply been caught off guard.
Although Lee would eventually direct his officers to provide written accounts of the engagement so he could pinpoint the causes of failure, that night, November 7, brought far more urgent concerns. The bridgehead's loss shattered any hope of launching an offensive and left Confederate forces stretched thin along a line that could no longer be held. Meade now had an opportunity, if he moved swiftly, to trap Lee's army against the Rapidan River in much the same manner Lee himself had attempted against Maj. Gen. John Pope's forces along the Rappahannock the previous year during Second Bull Run. Recognizing the danger, Lee scrapped his intended assault on French's men and had his troops moving southward within a matter of hours.
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