As Federal and Confederate armies settled into defenses east of Petersburg, Virginia, Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant looked to destroy the two railroads that supplied the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia: the South Side Railroad running west to the Shenandoah Valley and the Weldon Railroad running south to North Carolina.
Grant assigned two Federal cavalry divisions to wreck track on both railroads. Major-General George G. Meade, commanding the Federal Army of the Potomac, wanted to wait until the rest of the cavalry came back from its western raid, but Grant wanted to make a quick strike. The attack force consisted of Brigadier-General James H. Wilson’s division from the Army of the Potomac and Brigadier-General August V. Kautz’s small division from the Army of the James. The force consisted of 3,300 troopers, 12 guns, and a supply train.
The Federals set out on June 22, riding west from the main Federal army to the Weldon and then moving southward along the line to Ream’s Station. They destroyed large amounts of track before turning northwest to Dinwiddie Court House and then to Ford’s Station on the South Side Railroad, 14 miles southwest of Petersburg.
The Federals skirmished with Major-General W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee’s pursuing Confederate horsemen along the way. But they did not meet significant resistance because most of the Confederate cavalry had been sent to stop Major-General Philip Sheridan’s Federal cavalry raid in the Shenandoah Valley.
Over the next two days, Wilson and Kautz rode west to the Burkeville junction on the Richmond & Danville Railroad, and then southwest along that line. The troopers wrecked 60 miles of track and several supply depots. They also attracted a growing number of fugitive slaves as they continued fending off Rooney Lee’s pursuers.
The Federals tried to destroy the bridge spanning the Staunton River on the 25th, but a force of just 900 infantrymen stopped them near Roanoke Station. The Confederates ran trains up and down the tracks to trick the Federals into thinking reinforcements were arriving. This delayed them long enough for Lee’s troopers to attack from behind and drive the Federals off before they could destroy the bridge.
Wilson and Kautz turned east, back toward the main Federal army. Three days later, their exhausted men and horses reached Stony Creek Depot on the Weldon Railroad. By this time, Major-General Wade Hampton’s Confederate cavalry had returned from fighting with Sheridan and now blocked any further progress while Rooney Lee again attacked the Federal rear. This forced Wilson and Kautz to take a roundabout path north toward Ream’s Station, leaving the fugitive slaves that had been following them behind.
The cavalrymen expected the Federal Second and Sixth corps to be holding Ream’s Station, but those troops had been driven back to the Jerusalem Plank Road a week ago. Confederate infantry under Brigadier-General William Mahone blocked the Federal front while Lee’s cavalry hit the Federal left around noon. Nearly surrounded, the Federals managed to break out, but they spiked their guns and burned their wagon train in the process.
Kautz’s forces rode southeast and reached the Federal lines later that night. Wilson rode farther south before turning east, crossing the Blackwater River and then turning north. His men returned to the Federal lines in early July. The Federals had destroyed railroad track as ordered, and they caused the Confederates to suffer a serious supply shortage for weeks. But they were nearly annihilated in the process, sustaining about 1,500 casualties and losing all their guns and supplies. The Confederates ultimately repaired the damage, and Grant soon looked into other ways of harassing the Confederate army at Petersburg.
Bibliography
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