"Rather than discussing the actual battle of Kelly's Ford, I want to look at events leading up to the battle. Most of the documents I cite do not appear in The Official Records, though a couple are quoted in Edwin Fishel's excellent work, The Secret War for the Union, The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War.
And, no, you will not find any mention, beyond this sentence, of the oft-quoted note Confederate general Fitz Lee left for William Averell following the fight at Hartwood Church on February 25, 1863, and often cited as the impetus for the affair.
I also ask your indulgence, as I have interrupted my series on Inspectors and Veterinary Surgeons, which will resume next month.
For my thoughts on events preceding and following the fight at Hartwood Church see my posts from 2021 here and here. In the second link, I mention Gen. Joseph Hooker's tirade in the wake of the defeat. The date of the event is uncertain, and the identify of his victim(s) is unclear, though George Stoneman, commander of the Cavalry Corps, and William Averell, whose division bore responsibility for the picket line around the church, are the likely candidates. I discuss those events in the posts linked above, but I want to take the story further here and look at subsequent events leading to the Kelly's Ford fight a couple of weeks later.
Orders from Stoneman and Averell dated March 6, tend to fix the date of Hooker's confrontation with one of or both of them as either March 5 or 6. Stoneman wrote, in part, "The fact of any party of men in the performance of outpost duty having been surprised and captured manifests a disregard for orders and a criminal neglect of duty for which no punishment can be too severe. Hereafter any commissioned officers or officers in command of a party engaged on scouting, outpost or picket duty who shall be surprised and any of the party under his or their command taken prisoner will be recommended for dismissal, the non-commissioned officers will be reduced to the ranks and together with the other enlisted men of the party surprised will be charged on their next muster roll with all public property with which they have been entrusted and which shall have been captured by the enemy."…"
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Armand
