Stoneman ' s 1863 Raid Stoneman ' s Raid was a cavalry operation that preceded the start of the Battle of Chancellorsville in the American Civil War . Strategy . In April 1863 , Major General Joseph Hooker put his army in motion to force Lee out of his Fredericksburg positions . He sent Major General George Stoneman ' s 10 , 000 - strong cavalry to move between Lee and the Confederate capital , Richmond . Hooker expected Stoneman to sever Lee ' s line of supply by destroying the strategically vital Orange and Alexandria Railroad at the town of Gordanville . This would , Hooker hoped , compel Lee to withdraw from Fredericksburg while cutting him off from supplies and transportation . Hooker also saw to it that John Buford was given an active field command and rode to battle in April 1863 with the Reserve Brigade , an organization that contained the majority of the Regular Army cavalry units serving in the east . On April 12 , Hooker wrote to Stoneman of the impending operation - Prelude . At 8 a . m . on April 13 , 1863 , Buford ' s Brigade , composed of the First , Second , Fifth , and Sixth U . S . Cavalry , left camp at Falmouth , Virginia , to embark on the ambitious and daring raid . As soon as the next day , they were engaged with the enemy at Kelly ' s Ford ; the rebels firing upon the brigade with two 10 - pounder Parrotts - 13 shots in total . Lieutenant Elder ' s four gun battery replied , firing 12 shots , and drove the rebel guns out of sight . According to Buford ' s official report , by the 15th , the brigade was at Rappahannock Bridge , ready to cross but were ordered to await further instructions . However , nature had not dealt a kind hand to the Union cavalry as torrential rain turned the roads to quagmires and the streams into raging torrents . It was not until April 29 that the Reserve Brigade was able to cross at Kelly ' s Ford . Over those intervening two weeks , Buford detailed the conditions facing the cavalry ; Kenneth Williams Stoneman ' s Raid . During April 29 and 30 , elements of Buford ' s cavalry scoured the countryside seeking suitable river crossings and skirmishing with Rebel pickets . The conditions and the weather deteriorated with the men ' s rations becoming sodden and since campfires were forbidden lest they reveal the raider ' s location , the cavalryman ' s uniforms were rarely dry . The plight of the horses was even worse ; dead and crippled animals marked the route of Stoneman ' s march . By May 2 , Buford ' s brigade camped alone on the south bank of the North Anna river - he had led his men almost halfway to the Confederate capitol at Richmond and could begin his task of destroying the local infrastructure in earnest . Into action on May 2 was Captain Myles Keogh ; Keogh accompanied British born Lieutenant Walker ' s C Company , Fifth U . S cavalry , in a raid that captured a 15 wagon strong supply train at Thompson ' s Cross Roads . Keogh personally arranged for the captured mules , 60 in all , to be distributed to the men whose horses had gone lame . At Louisa , Captain Lord , with his regiment , the First Cavalry , was also detached toward Tolersville and Frederickshall , to destroy the railroad and to burn the bridge over the North Anna , on the road from Fredericksburg . On May 4 , a Captain Harrison with the remainder of the Fifth U . S . cavalry engaged Confederate cavalry for the first time in the raid , led by Robert E . Lee ' s son , Rooney Lee . In his own report of that event , Captain James E . Harrison gives his account of facing a force vastly superior in number to his own - By May 5 , only 646 of the brigade ' s horses were deemed fit to continue . Using these mounts , Buford , by necessity , returned to Louisa and Gordansville only to find their destructive work of three days previous part - repaired ! No doubt to the enemies frustration , Buford ' s men set about their destructive task again . There at nightfall they met and evaded a strong contingent of Confederate infantry and cannon , although briefly , one trooper admitted - " it looked . . . as if our time had come " Buford ' s return towards Gordansville was also ordered as a ruse to mask the return of the main body of Stoneman ' s cavalry to Hooker ' s command . Colonel George B . Sandford would later write of this undertaking - " Buford was the man of all others to be entrusted with such an undertaking . " For three days and nights , Buford ' s exhausted men remained on the move and such was the trooper ' s fatigue that dozens of men fell asleep in the saddles of their emaciated , sore backed horses . Even now as the mission was nearing completion , ended by the Union retreat from its defeat at Chancellorsville , Buford ' s column was still battling the swollen rivers and streams . From May 6 , when they regrouped with Stoneman , to the 10th , Buford ' s men made their way slowly back to HQ at Falmouth where they returned to picket duty and recovered from the previous weeks exertions . Buford ' s enterprise provided one of the few bright moments in what was a less damaging campaign than expected , although the Northern press hailed the incursion in glowing terms . Post - script . During the Chancellorsville Campaign , Stoneman accomplished little and Hooker considered him one of the principal reasons for the Union defeat at Chancellorsville . Hooker needed to deflect criticism from himself and relieved Stoneman from his cavalry command , sending him back to Washington , D . C . , for medical treatment ( chronic hemorrhoids , exacerbated by cavalry service ) , where in July he became a Chief of the U . S . Cavalry Bureau , a desk job . Buford was soon elevated to the command of a cavalry division but was quick to laud the performances of his seven staff in his official report of the raid - Regardless of the success or failure of the daring operation , what it did install was a growing sense of confidence among the men of the Federal cavalry . While Captain Merritt of the 1st Maine may be slightly overstating the legacy of that campaign when he termed it - " one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of modern warfare " - one of his troopers probably best summed up the newfound confidence when he recorded -