St. James Episcopal Church - Brandy Station VA
N 38° 31.407 W 077° 52.129
18S E 249902 N 4267797
A country church was a focal point in the greatest cavalry battle of the Civil War.
Waymark Code: WMBX2D
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 06/29/2011
Views: 3
St. James Episcopal Church was a 2-story brick church that was built in 1840 two miles from the Rappahannock River in Culpeper County, Virginia. It had a cemetery where both white and slaves were buried.
Its strategic location put it in the middle of the Battle of Brandy Station, the largest cavalry battle of the Civil War. In June 1863, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and his horse artillery set up a line of defense at the church. Fighting raged around St. James as Stuart held back an Union assault led by Gen. John Buford.
Several months later in December, Union Gen Meade, after his unsuccessful attempt to capture Confederate Gen. Lee at Mine Run
, brought his troops to Culpeper to set up winter encampment. St. James Church was dismantled by soldiers for bricks and lumber to build the winter huts. The church was totally destroyed.
After the war, the church was rebuilt in 1869, although not at its original location, and renamed the Christ Episcopal Church. In December 2005, the Brandy Station Foundation signed a lease with Christ Episcopal Church to take over the old St. James site and cemetery. The BSF cleaned up the area by clearing brush and installing paths and signs to identify the layout of the church. The adjacent cemetery is said to hold 60 graves. Although there are only two inscribed tombstones, one to an unknown Confederate soldier, many of the burials are marked by fieldstones or depressions.
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