Qualla: First Battle of Rappahannock Station

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit various, Public domain. Three hours, fifty cannon, one wooden railroad bridge. On the morning of August 23, 1862, the nineteen guns of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans opened fire on a Union battery posted on a small knoll on the south bank of the Rappahannock River. The Union artillery on the north bank answered. Within minutes the river crossing at what is now Remington, Virginia, was the center of one of the fiercest small artillery duels of the entire Civil War. The railroad bridge - the key prize - was set on fire by retreating Union engineers. The men who died on the south bank knoll included a New Orleans Confederate artilleryman whose remains were not recovered until a Smithsonian team uncovered them in 1989.

Image: various | Public domain

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: How the Armies Got Here

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. In early August 1862, Robert E. Lee read the troop movements coming out of the Virginia Peninsula and concluded that George B. McClellan's army was being pulled back to reinforce John Pope, the Union general advancing south from Washington. Lee shifted James Longstreet's wing fro...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: The Artillery Duel

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edwin Forbes, Public domain. Storms on August 22 raised the Rappahannock enough to make most of the fords useless. The bridge at Rappahannock Station became the only practical crossing point on Lee's right. Union artillery on the high north bank, plus a small infantry-and-gun detachment on the south bank kno...

Image: Edwin Forbes | Public domain

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: What the Battle Set Up

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edwin Forbes, Public domain. By mid-afternoon, additional Confederate artillery had arrived and forced the Union defenders to set fire to the buildings in the small town and retreat. Tactically the engagement was a draw. Strategically it was a Confederate success - it pinned Pope's army to the river, distrac...

Image: Edwin Forbes | Public domain

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: The Artilleryman from New Orleans

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edwin Forbes, Public domain. In 1989, a Smithsonian Institution archaeological team excavated the ruins of St. James Episcopal Church near Rappahannock Station as part of an evaluation for the National Register of Historic Places. They found the remains of a Confederate soldier. Identification placed him as ...

Image: Edwin Forbes | Public domain

First Battle of Rappahannock Station: What Survives on the River

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Edwin Forbes, Public domain. The American Battlefield Trust and its partners have preserved 869 acres of the First Rappahannock Station battlefield as of November 2021. The preserved ground includes visible earthworks along the Rappahannock, the ruins of mills along the river, and the abutments of the railro...

Image: Edwin Forbes | Public domain