and many veterans of the Battle of Fredericksburg, was a shock. Stuart wrote after the battle, "The gallant Pelham—so noble, so true—will be mourned by the nation." The Battle of Kelly’s Ford proved to be a significant moral victory for Union forces. Prior to the battle, Stuart’s horsemen had been successfully raiding the Union position for months, causing Union morale, especially that of its cavalry units, to plummet. The Federal cavalry’s ability to hold its own against its Confederate counterpart for the first time in the war completely reversed such sentiments. Union forces, encouraged by this victory, would proceed into the 1863 summer campaigns with increased confidence. However, Confederate forces were able to achieve a tactical victory due to Averell's failure to convert his defensive success and untimely withdrawal, which left Lee's brigade in possession of the battlefield. One of the participants, Lt. Joseph A. Chedell of the 1st Rhode Island, wrote that Kelly's Ford was the "first real, and perhaps the most brilliant, cavalry fight of the whole war." Both Union and Confederate armies used Kelly's Ford extensively during the Civil War. In addition to the role it played in this battle, it was also host to two notable engagements that occurred later that same year: the Battle of Brandy Station on June 9, 1863, and one during the Bristoe Campaign's Second Battle of Rappahannock Station on November 7, 1863. Battlefield preservation The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved of the battlefield in five separate acquisitions since 2006. The well-preserved cavalry battlefield is on the south bank of the Rappahannock River within the C.F. Phelps Wildlife Management Area and includes hiking trails, interpretive markers and the "Gallant Pelham" memorial to Maj. John Pelham, the distinguished Confederate artillery officer who was mortally wounded at age 24 during the March 17 battle at Kelly's Ford and died the next day. Notes References Blumberg, Arnold D. "Battle of Kelly's Ford, Virginia." In Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, edited by David S. Heidler and Jeanne T. Heidler. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2000. . Denison, Frederic. Sabres and Spurs: The First Regiment Rhode Island Cavalry in the Civil War, 1861–1865. Baltimore: Butternut and Blue, 1994. . First published 1876 by the First Rhode Island Cavalry Veteran Association. Eicher, David J. The Longest Night: