The Bristoe Campaign is a series of minor battles fought in Virginia during October and November 1863, in the American Civil War.
Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commanding the Union Army of the Potomac, begins to maneuver in an unsuccessful attempt to defeat Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Lee counters with a turning movement, which causes Meade to withdraw his army back toward Centreville.
Lee strikes at Bristoe Station on October 14, but suffers losses in two brigades and withdraws.
As Meade follows south once again, the Union army smashes a Confederate defensive bridgehead at Rappahannock Station on November 7 and drives Lee back across the Rapidan River.
Along with the infantry battles, the cavalry forces of the armies fight at Auburn on October 13, again at Auburn on October 14, and at Buckland Mills on October 19.
The Confederates have not achieved their primary objectives of bringing on a decisive battle or preventing the Federal reinforcement of the Western Theater, and Lee and his officers are much demoralized by this failure.
