The battle was technically a Confederate victory because Averell's men failed to achieve their objective of destroying Lee's smaller force and they withdrew under pressure across the ford at dusk. However the Federal cavalrymen believed they had won a moral victory because, for the first time, they had held their own against Stuart's legendary horsemen. They would proceed into the 1863 summer campaigns with increased confidence. 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."