Hooker also saw to it that John Buford was given an active field command and rode to battle in April 1863 with the Reserve Brigade, an organization that contained the majority of the Regular Army cavalry units serving in the east.

By May 2, Buford's brigade camped alone on the south bank of the North Anna river—he had led his men almost halfway to the Confederate capital at Richmond and could begin his task of destroying the local infrastructure in earnest.

On May 2 Captain Myles Keogh accompanied British born Lieutenant Walker's C Company, Fifth U.S cavalry, in a raid that captured a 15 wagon strong supply train at Thompson's Cross Roads.

At Louisa, Captain Lord, with his regiment, the First Cavalry, was also detached toward Tolersville and Frederickshall, to destroy the railroad and to burn the bridge over the North Anna, on the road from Fredericksburg.

From May 6, when they regrouped with Stoneman, to the 10th, Buford's men made their way slowly back to HQ at Falmouth where they returned to picket duty and recovered from the previous weeks exertions.

Buford was soon elevated to the command of a cavalry division but was quick to laud the performances of his seven staff in his official report of the raid: All of my staff-Captains [Myles W.] Keogh, [Joseph] O'Keeffe, and [Theodore C.] Bacon; Lieutenants [John] Mix, Peter Penn Gaskell, [Philip] Dwyer, and [William] Dean—have been severely worked, and have rendered valuable service to me.

Untiring and zealous, they have relieved me of much anxiety, and have promoted good feeling through the brigade.Regardless of the success or failure of the daring operation, what it did install was a growing sense of confidence among the men of the Federal cavalry.

While Captain Merritt of the 1st Maine may be slightly overstating the legacy of that campaign when he termed it—"one of the most remarkable achievements in the history of modern warfare"—one of his troopers probably best summed up the new-found confidence when he recorded: It was ever after a matter of pride with the boys that they were on Stoneman's Raid.