CWPT closer to purchasing key piece of Brandy Station battlefield

By Rob Humphreys

Published: April 12, 2008

The Civil War Preservation Trust is one step closer to purchasing a key piece of the Brandy Station battlefield.

The Washington, D.C.-based group recently announced it has signed a contract with Whitney Pound to buy 26.2 acres on the northeastern slope of Fleetwood Heights, site of the war’s largest cavalry battle.

Clark “Bud” Hall, who writes a Civil War column for the Star-Exponent and works closely with the CWPT, calls the site — and an adjoining 23-acre parcel purchased in December — “the most important acreage on the entire battlefield.”

“We wanted Fleetwood Hill for many, many years,” Hall said, “and now we can report, thanks to the Civil War Preservation Trust, we have secured it for many generations to come.”

Spokesman Jim Campi said CWPT will pay $785,000 for the land, using private donations and federal money from the American Battlefield Protection Program. Per the contract, the funds must be raised by mid-September.

The trust now owns 1,013 acres at Brandy Station, located about five miles northeast of the town of Culpeper near the Rappahannock River. The battle, a narrow Confederate victory, is considered the opening action of the Gettysburg Campaign.

According to Hall, the newly acquired property holds significant importance for military and historical reasons.

“It was on this ground,” he said, “that the 12th Virginia Cavalry charged” Union horsemen in the late morning hours of June 9, 1863. “This charge precipitates extraordinarily heaving fighting on top of the slopes of the hill as well as the sides of the hill.”

Herring’s Spring
The site is home to Herring’s Spring, where, to this day, water still bubbles from the earth a short distance from Fleetwood Heights Road, known during the war as the Carolina Road.

“Soldiers who were wounded during the battle were taken to this ground to be tended to for their wounds,” Hall said, adding that troops from both sides found comfort in the spring’s water. “A lot of guys were buried on that sight.”

Interestingly, Hall added, the spring is the genesis of how Brandy Station — originally called Crossroads — got its name.

During the Revolutionary War, soldiers had grown accustomed to buying brandy from Isaac Herring, who owned a house nearby. Where did the water come from to distill the brandy? Herring’s Spring, of course.

“On one occasion,” Hall said, “he didn’t have any in stock, and the soldiers wrote ‘brandy’ on his house. That’s the anecdotal story, at least, and I believe it’s true.”

Rob Humphreys can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 128 or

Largest CWPT sites

Battlefield, acreage
Trevilian Station, Va. – 1,454
Brices Cross Roads, Miss. – 1,316
Brandy Station, Va. – 1,013
White Oak Road, Va. – 886
Corinth, Miss. – 834
Bentonville, N.C. – 780
Note: The CWPT also owns 151 acres at Cedar Mountain battlefield.