In late December 1861 Brigadier General J. E. B. Stuart and Brigadier General E. O. C. Ord both led their infantry brigades out of their camps in search of forage. At this time they were both relatively unknown, though the following four years would see them both immortalized, Stuart switching arms to the cavalry and Ord switching theaters to the West. At Dranesville they would meet for the first and only time on the battlefield as both were learning their craft.