Hallowed ground

BRANDY STATION — A small group of wounded veterans from Walter Reed Army Medical Center walked the grounds of the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War Saturday as part of a special battlefield tour sponsored by the Blue and Gray Education Society and The Yellow Ribbon Fund.

More than 20,000 Union and Confederate troops, including 17,000 on horseback, clashed here June 9, 1863, near the village named for a tavern, claiming more than 1,400 men and leading the way to Gettysburg.

Nearly 150 years later, Iraqi War veteran Sgt. Yvette McDermott of the National Guard was among the wounded warriors from Walter Reed visiting the sprawling farm fields, soaking in the sun and some Culpeper history.

From Goochland, McDermott is already familiar with Virginia’s part in the Civil War and said she enjoys taking advantage of the touring opportunities provided through the Army hospital in D.C.

As Civil War historian and tour guide Dr. Dan Beattie of Charlottesville talked about the Brandy Station battle of sabers and pistols, the 42-year-old female veteran leaned on a cane, an indication of her tours of duty in Iraq and Kosovo.

“We came under fire in Iraq,” McDermott said of her first tour in 2004. “I fell with my weapon and was trying to crawl back to the bunker.”

In the process, her knee became badly infected, but she opted against a stay in the hospital.

“I didn’t want to go to Baghdad. So I toughed it out,” said McDermott, who serves with the 1st Battalion, 116th Infantry based in Lynchburg. “We wear the Stonewall Jackson patch.”

After 10 months in Iraq, she spent 19 months in Kosovo, re-injuring the same knee in a fall.

In September, she had knee replacement surgery and will be at Walter Reed rehabilitating until December. Beyond that, McDermott hopes she can get rehired at the Powhatan Correctional Center, where she spent 15 years as a guard.

In the meantime, she said she’s doing all she can to get retrained and learn new skills in the field.

“I want to be able to keep that job because I’m young,” McDermott said.

Len Riedel, executive director of the Blue & Gray Education Society — a nonprofit Civil War history group based in Chatham that co-sponsored Saturday’s tour — realized commonalities between today’s fighting in the Middle East and the War Between the States.

“War makes ugly wounds that man has to bind up as best it can,” he said.

Or woman.

In the Civil War, prosthetic devices were crude but functional, Riedel added, and then, like now, exploding shells caused most of the wounds.

“Soldiering is still about a man or woman on the ground with a weapon fighting for a cause that they and their government believes is just,” he said.

In 2007, Blue & Gray joined The Yellow Ribbon Fund of Bethesda, Md. in offering history programs and tours for today’s wounded vets. Liedel said they’ve done 10 programs so far and have another seven scheduled for this year, including stops in Spotsylvania and Gettysburg.

“I am impressed with the demeanor of soldiers we see, the strength of their families and the determination they have to keep on living and to master the challenges that have been passed their way,” he said.

The demeanor Saturday on the Brandy Station Battlefield of U.S. Army Sgt. Michael Alarcon was one of staid resilience. Wearing a camouflage hat and dark sunglasses, the Oregon native also wore a neck brace.

“That’s how I did this,” he said, nodding and pointing to his neck when asked if he served in Iraq. “January 28 — and IED explosion got me,” Alarcon said, standing near Fleetwood Hill, the site of the beginning of the Brandy Station battle, not far from the Rappahannock River or today’s Culpeper County Airport.

Airplanes and helicopters took off and landed nearby as Beattie recounted the initial skirmish in 1863 down Beverly Ford Road.

“Caution slowed the Feds coming down the road,” he said. “They didn’t charge this position.”

A couple hundred yards away, Beattie added, the Sixth Virginia met Union troops face-to-face and horse-to-horse.

Earlier, he led the tour down Auburn Road to the 1855 Greek Revival estate, Auburn, a white house located on the southern portion of the battlefield. Subsequently, it saw lots of action during the Civil War.

In fact, Major Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart, commanding officer at the Battle of Brandy Station, lived at Auburn for a while after seizing it from its owner, a Union sympathizer.

And then in late 1863, after the battle of Brandy and during the Winter Encampment, the Army of the Potomac moved its thousands into Culpeper, covering the grounds around Auburn and most everywhere else in the county. Ulysses Grant and George Meade were among the Federals who dined at Auburn.

Speaking near Auburn Saturday, Beattie focused on the pre-battle “grand review” of Confederate cavalry forces conducted for Gen. Stuart and Robert E. Lee.

“They had a ball before the review in Culpeper and the night after in Culpeper,” said Beattie, a Vietnam-era veteran and author of “Brandy Station 1863: First Step Towards Gettysburg.”

He said Stuart was quite the flirt — “though he never cheated on his wife” — and was quite in his glory as the troops on horseback paraded past.

“The cavalry’s main job was to look for the enemy so the enemy didn’t find them,” Beattie said. “Both Lee and Stuart were immensely pleased with the sight of the cavalry.”

Alas, no horses were seen during the first half of Saturday’s tour, but fields of cows grazed around every corner.

Field after field of tiny yellow flowers at Auburn added to the beauty of the estate, as did an American flag flying from a silo. The day was hazy and warm with large clouds ever looming above, but the rain held off.

Natural beauty aside, it mostly was a time for military appreciation. “It is our way of saying we won’t forget you and thank you,” Riedel said.