June 6, 1863 (Saturday): Hooker Looks to Culpeper

General A. P. Hill

HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC,
June 6, 1863-3 p. m. (Received 3. 30 p. m.)
Major-General HALLECK:
    As the accumulation of the heavy rebel force of cavalry about Culpeper may mean mischief, I am determined, if practicable, to break it up in it incipiency. I shall send my cavalry against them, stiffened by about 3, 000 infantry. It will require until the morning of the 9th for my forces to gain their positions, and at daylight on that day it is my intention to attack them in their camps. As many of my cavalry are still unserviceable from the effects of Stoneman's raid, I am too weak to cope with the numbers of the enemy if as large as represented. It would add much to my efficiency if some of Stahel's forces could advance, and hold fords at Beverly and Sulphur Springs some time during the forenoon of the 9th. If this should be done, I desire that the officer in command should not be informed of the object of his march, but merely to hold these fords. It is next to impossible to confine information to it proper limits. I have 2,500 sabers on a reconnaissance to-day in the vicinity of Jefferson. Jones' brigade, which has been hovering about Milroy all winter numbering 1, 600, is among them; also an additional brigade from North Carolina.


    JOSEPH HOOKER,
    Major-General.

Official Records, Series I., Vol. 27, Part 1, Page 33.

On the 6th Confederate forces moved closer to the river and its fords at Fredericksburg.  The Union artillery shelled extensively and Union forces went on alert.  Meanwhile, Hooker and the Union high command were concerned by the continued presence of Stuart at Culpeper and, as shown here, made plans to attack his forces three days hence.  What the Union forces had detected was A.P. Hill, left in Fredericksburg to cover Confederate attentions, moving closer to the river to prevent a crossing.  Such a crossing might have revealed the Longstreet and Ewell were in the process of eluding detection and heading west to join Lee and Stuart near Culpeper.