The Confederates, still under siege around Petersburg, Virginia, needed to come up with new ways to feed themselves, or else be starved into submission. General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, urged his cavalry commander, Major-General Wade Hampton, to target the Federal supply base at City Point, eight miles northeast of Petersburg at the confluence of the Appomattox and James rivers. Lee stated, “I judge that the enemy is very open to attack at City Point. A sudden blow in that quarter might be detrimental to him.”
City Point had been transformed into a busy seaport that contained scores of warehouses and factories able to easily feed and supply the Federal armies outside Petersburg. Engineers had constructed an extensive railway system to that ran 21 miles from City Point to the front. Over a dozen runs were made daily, with the top Federal commanders also using the railroad to get to and from their headquarters.
Sergeant George D. Shadburne, one of Hampton’s top scouts, reconnoitered the area and reported, “At Coggins’ Point (six miles below City Point on the James) are 3,000 beeves, attended by 120 men, and 30 citizens without arms.” Such a catch could feed the Confederate army for weeks, so Lee quickly approved Hampton’s plan to capture the herd of cattle.
Hampton waited until Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant, the overall commander, left his City Point headquarters before striking. The command moved out at 1 a.m. on September 14; it consisted of 4,000 men in three brigades, including “several certified Texas cattle thieves.” Shadburne guided them as they tried confusing Federal scouts by riding southwest, beyond the Federal left flank below Petersburg, to Dinwiddie Court House.
The Confederates then rode southeast for 11 miles before turning northeast toward Coggins’ Point. By day’s end, they arrived at Wilkinson’s Bridge over Rowanty Creek. The next day, Hampton’s men continued northeast for 18 miles to the Blackwater River, where engineers repaired Cook’s Bridge. They crossed the river at midnight and prepared to attack Federal pickets at Sycamore Church, four miles from Coggins’ Point, at dawn.
Brigadier-General Thomas L. Rosser’s Laurel Brigade led the dawn assault. They overwhelmed elements of the 1st D.C. and 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry, then surrounded the cattle before the Federals could stop them. With help from shepherd dogs they had brought, the Confederates rustled 2,468 of the 2,486 head of cattle. They also made off with 11 supply-filled wagons and 304 prisoners while losing just 61 men (10 killed, 47 wounded, and four missing).
Federal gunboats arrived too late to stop Hampton’s men, who herded the cattle back along the same route they had taken to get there. Rosser’s Confederates stopped to fight off Federal pursuers at Ebenezer Church that afternoon. The rest of the Confederates continued pushing the herd on a line that stretched nearly seven miles.
After an all-night ride, Hampton’s men delivered the cattle at 9 a.m. the next day. This was one of the largest cattle-rustling actions in American history, netting nearly two million pounds of beef at a time when Richmond had just a 15-day supply of meat to feed the Confederate army. This greatly helped the defenders outside Petersburg, who taunted the Federals with their own beef across the lines. It also earned Hampton’s cavalry the nickname the “cowboys.”
Bibliography
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