The battle of Aldie ( born Battle of Aldie ) took place on June 17, 1863 in Loudon County, Virginia. It was one of the battles of the Gettysburg Campaign during the American Civil War .
| The Battle of Eldi | |||
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| Main Conflict: US Civil War | |||
 Edwin Forbes: Aldie's cavalry skirmish | |||
| date | June 17, 1863 | ||
| A place | Loudon County , Virginia | ||
| Total | draw | ||
| Opponents | |||
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| Commanders | |||
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| Forces of the parties | |||
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| Losses | |||
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The Confederate Army, led by General Lee, moved north through the Shenandoah Valley , while Jeb Stewart's cavalry covered up the offensive. The federal army was east: David Greg’s division also moved north, with Judson Kilpatrick’s cavalry brigade at the forefront. Near the village of Eldi, this brigade encountered a detachment of Thomas Manford , which led to a four-hour shootout. Both sides conducted several cavalry attacks. At noon, Kilpatrick received reinforcements and Manford retreated to Middleberg.
Content
Background
Towards the end of the spring of 1863, the conflict between the commander of the federal army Joseph Hooker and the commander of the federal cavalry Alfred Pleasanton was gradually growing, caused by the fact that Pleasanton could not break through Jeb Stewart's cover and find out the whereabouts of the North Virginia army . At the same time, complaints were received from Pleasanton by Henry Haleck. As a result, on June 16, Hooker ordered Pleasanton to find out where the enemy is and where he is heading, and for this to break through the line of his pickets, despite the possible losses [2] .
On June 17, Pleasanton began to carry out the order. For this purpose, he ordered General David Gregg to move from Manassas down the Little River Highway to Eldi. Eldi was of strategic importance: the Little River, Ashbis-Gap and Snickers-Gap intersected near the village. The last two allowed you to go through the Blueridge Mountains to the Shenandoah Valley.
Battle
On the morning of the same day, Colonel Thomas Manford (interim brigade commander Fitzhugh Lee) sent the 2nd and 3rd Virginia regiments east through Laudon Valley, from Upperville through Middleburg to Eldi for reconnaissance and foraging. In Eldi, he left a line of pickets to observe the enemy, and sent two regiments north-west of Eldi, to the Snickers Gap Gorge, to Franklin Carter's farm.
Around 04:00, Gregg's advancing convoy (2nd and 4th New York regiments, 6th Ohio, 1st Manx, 1st Rhode Island and 1st Massachusetts) under the command of Judson Kilpatrick , appeared near Eldi . West of the town, the 1st Mans Regiment came across Manford pickets and threw them away. At this very time, the rest of the Manford brigade (1st, 4th and 5th Virgin Cavalry Regiments) under the command of Colonel Williams Carter Wickham appeared at Dover Mills, a small village on Little River west of Eldi. Wickham ordered Colonel Thomas Rosser to camp at Virginia's 5th camp near Eldi. Moving east, the Virginians met the Massachusetts and easily threw them back, behind Eldi, to the main parts of the federal army. Rosser deployed a detachment of 50 snipers (Cap. Reyben Boston) east of William Eden’s farm, and deployed his main forces on a ridge that covered two roads leading from Eldi. There he began to wait for the appearance of the federals, and at the same time the people of Manford. The Massachusetts regarded Rosser's withdrawal to the ridge as a retreat and rushed to the attack, which was supported by the 4th New York. Rosser's men withstood the blow and went on a counterattack themselves, supported by sniper fire from the left flank. They succeeded in dropping the feds and holding the Ashbis-Gap-Tenpike road.
Then Kilpatrick decided to advance along the Snickers-Gap-Tenpike road. The artillery duel began. The feds went on the offensive, but the people of Manford met them with the fire of snipers who sat behind a stone wall and forced to retreat. Massachusetts 1st suffered particularly badly, losing 198 out of 294 (or 77 killed and wounded and 90 prisoners), and the compound of Henry Lee Higginson was actually destroyed in hand-to-hand combat. These were the highest losses of the cavalry regiment during the Gettysburg campaign [1] .
At sunset, the feds repeated the attack and the 6th Ohio managed to overturn parts of Boston on the Ashbis-Gap highway, interrupting and capturing all his people. At 20:00, Manford took the people to Middleberg and the battle stopped.
Consequences
Manford did not recognize Eldi as a defeat, as his retreat coincided with Stuart's retirement order. The North lost 305 people dead and wounded, while the Confederation lost 110 or 119. The battle of Eldi was the first of a series of battles along the Ashbis-Gap Highway, during which Stuart successfully thwarted Pleasanton's attempts to break through the Loudons Valley and find Lee's army.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 Sears, 1987 , p. 98.
- ↑ Sears, 1987 , p. 97.
Literature
- O'Neill, Robert F. The Cavalry Battles of Aldie, Middleburg and Upperville: Small But Important Riots, June 10-27, 1863. Lynchburg, VA: HE Howard, 1993. ISBN 1-56190-052-4 .
- Sears, Stephen W. Gettysburg. - Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987 .-- 622 p. - ISBN 0-395-86761-4 .