Upperville

On June 21st, Union cavalry made another determined effort to pierce Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalry screen of Robert E. Lee's invading army as it moved north. Two days after skirmishing with the Union cavalry brigade of Col. J. Irvin Gregg in and around Middleburg, Brig. Gens. Wade Hampton and Beverly Robertson’s brigades made a stand and beat back Brig. Gen. David McMurtrie Gregg’s division near a stone bridge over Goose Creek, four miles east of Upperville. Gregg called for infantry support and received the brigade of Col. Strong Vincent from the Fifth Corps. Vincent's men pushed the Confederate forces back, and his 16th Michigan Infantry captured an artillery piece from Stuart's fleeing troopers. Brig. Gen. John Buford’s column detoured to attack the Confederate left flank north of Upperville but encountered Brig. Gens. William E. “Grumble”  Jones and John R. Chambliss’s cavalry brigades while two more Union cavalry brigades advanced on Upperville from the east along the turnpike. After furious mounted fighting, Stuart withdrew to take a defensive position on Vineyard Hill in Upperville, as Lee's Confederate infantry crossed the Potomac River into Maryland. As cavalry skirmishing around Upperville diminished, Stuart asked for and received Lee's permission to strike east and make a circuit of the Union army as it followed the Confederates toward Gettysburg.