“Out flew the sabres, and most handsomely they were used.” –Brig. Gen. John Buford

Out Flew the Sabres: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863 

Savas Beatie, 2016
192 pp.; 150 images, 8 maps
ISBN: 978-1-61121-256-3
Click here to order

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About the Book: One day. Fourteen hours. Twelve thousand Union cavalrymen against 9,000 of their Confederate counterparts-with 3,000 Union infantry thrown in for good measure. Amidst the thunder of hooves and the clashing of sabers, they slugged it out across the hills and dales of Culpeper County, Virginia.

And it escalated into the largest cavalry battle ever fought on the North American continent.

Fleetwood Hill at Brandy Station was the site of four major cavalry battles during the course of the Civil War, but none was more important than the one fought on June 9, 1863. That clash turned out to be the opening engagement of the Gettysburg campaign-and the one-day delay it engendered may very well have impacted the outcome of the entire campaign.

The tale includes a veritable who’s-who of cavalry all-stars in the East: Jeb Stuart, Wade Hampton, John Buford and George Armstrong Custer. Robert E. Lee, the great Confederate commander, saw his son, William H.F. Lee, being carried off the battlefield, severely wounded. Both sides suffered heavy losses.

But for the Federal cavalry, the battle of was also a watershed event. After Brandy Station, never again would they hear the mocking cry, “Whoever saw a dead cavalryman?”

In Out Flew the Sabres: The Battle of Brandy Station, June 9, 1863, Civil War historians Eric J. Wittenberg and Daniel T. Davis have written the latest entry in Savas Beatie’s critically acclaimed Emerging Civil War Series.

Out Flew the Sabres also includes:

• Forward by Kristopher D. White
• Afterword by O. James Lighthizer (President, Civil War Trust)
• Postscript: The Road to Gettysburg by Daniel T. Davis
• Appendix A: The Four Battles of Brandy Station by Eric J. Wittenberg
• Appendix B: The Winter Encampment by Mike Block
• Appendix C: The Battle of Kelly’s Ford by Daniel T. Davis
• Order of Battle
• Suggested Reading

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Civil War Monitor identified Out Flew the Sabres as one of the top ten highest selling Civil War books of 2016.

About the Authors: Eric J. Wittenberg is an accomplished American Civil War cavalry historian and author. An attorney in Ohio, Wittenberg has authored more than two dozen articles in popular magazines an a dozen books. His most recent book, The Devil’s to Pay: John Buford at Gettysburg, won the Gettysburg Civil War Roundtable’s 2015 Book Award.

Daniel T. Davis has worked as a historian at Appomattox Court House National Historic Site and the Fredericksburg and Spotsylvania National Military Park. He is the co-author of several books in the Emerging Civil War Series. He resides in Fredericksburg, Virginia.