Sheridan arrived at Meade’s headquarters around noon on May 8th in a foul mood. Meade was headquartered at the Old Piney Branch Church on the Catharpin Road (the church no longer stands). He was angered over the treatment of his cavalry by Meade the previous night. Angry words were exchanged and Sheridan stormed out stating that he could whip Stuart if only Meade would let him. This dysfunction between Meade and Sheridan would have a profound impact on the coming battle and campaign. Their rift would never heal. The problem for Meade was that Sheridan was one of Grant’s favorites. When Meade relayed Sheridan’s comment about Stuart to Grant. Grant’s comment was “Did Sheridan say so? Well, he generally knows what he is talking about. Let him start right out and do it.” And that’s exactly what Sheridan did over the next several weeks (he would not rejoin Grant until May 24th) and in the process deprived Meade of his cavalry during the coming battle. This also was the starting point of a deteriorating relationship between Meade and Grant. Meade was not happy that Grant did not support him in the squabble with Sheridan and when writing home to his wife stated that he was thinking of resigning from the army.

Meade and Sheridan had completely different views of the role of cavalry. Meade expected cavalry to function as scouts and screens while guarding the flanks of the army and protecting wagon trains. Sheridan, on the other hand, saw them more as an independent corps and mobile strike force. In Lee’s army Stuart’s Cavalry served all these functions. There was no reason that couldn’t be true in the Army of the Potomac as well except for the petty clash of egos between Meade and Sheridan. Their inability to compromise would ultimately have a significant effect on the upcoming battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Sheridan would get his away and orders were written for him on the 8th to lead a raid south with three goals: to take Stuart out of the war; to destroy Confederate supplies and infrastructure including part of the Virginia Central Railroad; and to threaten Richmond. The downside would be that the Federal army would be without its eyes and ears for the next two weeks.

That afternoon, Sheridan met with his three division commanders (Brigadier Generals Wesley Merritt, James Wilson and David Gregg) at the Alrich farm. There he outlined the mission making it clear that they were going to seek to draw Stuart’s Cavalry out from Spotsylvania Court House into the open for a fair fight and beat him, at his suggestion to General Meade. He also noted to his seconds in command that he represented to General Meade that he expected nothing but success. It was clear that the pressure was on them all. Failure was not an option. Before daylight on May 9th, 10,000 Federal cavalrymen, six batteries of artillery, and supply wagons loaded only with ammunition broke camp at the Alrich Farm. On their person the men would have 50 rounds of ammunition, 18 pistol rounds, a three day supply of coffee, sugar and hardtack, a one day supply of salted beef and five days worth of salt. Custer’s brigade, the 2nd and 5th NY, and 1st CT were equipped with 7-shot Spencer carbines. They moved onto the Orange Plank Road with Brigadier General Wesley Merritt’s three brigades at the front. Brigadier General George A. Custer’s four Michigan regiments would lead Merritt’s brigade. Brigadier General James Wilson’s two brigades followed Merritt. Brigadier General David Gregg was at the rear with his two brigades. The men rode four abreast. The column would be 13 miles long. At Tabernacle Church they headed southeast three miles to the Telegraph Road.

They crossed Massaponax Creek, passed Massaponax Church, and unmolested crossed the Ni and Po Rivers. At Jerrell’s Mill on the Ta River, Sheridan decided to move off the Telegraph Road toward Mitchell’s Shop and cross the North Anna River at Anderson’s Ford. This would allow him to attack the Confederate supply depot at Beaver Dam Station, and avoid crossing the North Anna at Telegraph Road. He had received reports that the crossing there was strongly held. 

That same morning Stuart was meeting with General Lee. It is said that they were on the second floor of an old church near Spotsylvania Court House where they could view enemy movements. I believe that rather than on the second floor of a church that they may have been on the second floor of the Sanford Hotel in one of the windows in the northeast corner, see gallery below. the window is in the upper right corner (38.2012614, -77.5896113). Around noon, while there, they received reports that a massive Federal cavalry column was moving south on the Telegraph Road. Stuart sent a courier to Major General Fitzhugh Lee then on the Fredericksburg Road to pursue them.

By midafternoon, Brigadier General Williams Wickham’s brigade of Fitz Lee’s division began the pursuit. His 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th VA Cavalry regiments headed east on the Massaponax Church Road along with artillery under Major James Breathed (Captain Philip Preston Johnston’s section of the 1st Stuart Horse Artillery and Captain James Hart’s section of the Washington South Carolina Battery). When reaching its intersection with the Telegraph Road he was informed the Federal column had passed there headed south. At Jerrell’s Mill on the Ta River, Wickham caught the tail of Sheridan’s column. 

Gregg’s First Brigade, commanded by Brigadier General Henry E. Davies, Jr., served as the rear guard. Just after he and his men crossed the Ta River Wickham’s 3rd VA Cavalry attacked. They broke through a squad from the 6th OH Cavalry and struck the NJ Cavalry. Davies rode back and the 4th VA was repulsed. What then followed was a series of skirmishes along the road that would extend into the night. A few miles further south at Mitchell’s Shop, Wickham again sent the 4th VA forward at the deployed 6th OH. After a brief fight and transient breakthrough the 4th VA were once again pushed back. Wickham next turned to the Cumberland Troop of the 3rd VA Cavalry commanded by Captain George Matthews ordering him forward. However, this time the Federals would be ready. Davies had set a trap. At Mitchell’s Shop, the road crossed a shallow stream, then passed along the base of a small hill. Davies positioned the 1st MA Cavalry in the woods to the right of the road, and the 1st Pennsylvania in the woods on the left, both units facing the stream. Men from the 6th OH were left in the middle of the road as bait for the trap. When the Confederates charged, the Ohioans retreated luring Captain Mathews right into the crossfire. Matthews’ horse was hit and he fell to the ground. Getting up swinging his sword he was shot from behind. As his men quickly skedaddled, a few Federals picked up Mathews and carried him to a nearby farmhouse where he died that night. Wickham deployed some of his guns, as did Davies but darkness soon followed. The 1st NJ and 1st MA guarded the road as Federal pioneers went to work chopping down trees to block the further passage of Rebel artillery and horses.

The Federals moved on toward Anderson Ford and the North Anna River where they would eventually camp for the night. Now only a short distance from the Confederate supply depot at Beaver Dam Station Sheridan ordered Custer’s brigade to cross the river and proceed there. Around 8:00 PM Major Melvin Brewer led a battalion of the 1st MI Cavalry toward the station, with the 6th MI as support. A severe thunderstorm broke out. Brewer’s column encountered a group of Federal prisoners being escorted to the depot where two trains were waiting to take them to Richmond. They were men from the V Corps that had been captured on May 8th on Laurel Hill. As the Federals charged the Confederate guards fled into the woods. Two hundred and seventy eight Northern soldiers were freed. The group included Colonel Phelps of the 7th MD and Colonel Talley of the 1st PA Reserves. Brewer and his men then charged into the station capturing the trains. There was a vast store of Rebel supplies at the depot. What the men couldn’t carry they burned. They derailed the trains and burned the station. As elements of Colonel Thomas Devin’s brigade arrived the men spread out in both directions and tore up 8-10 miles of track and cut the telegraph lines. Colonel Ridgely Brown of the Confederate 1st MD Cavalry watched from the woods as the depot burned. He returned to Hanover Junction to collect the rest of his 150 men and charged the Michiganders. Merritt was not happy that Custer had burned the supplies before his men had a chance to fill their knapsacks. All tolled 200,000 pounds of bacon, 1.5 million rations, and medical stores were burned. The 1st ME relieved the 6th OH as rearguard pickets after that group lost 87 men during the day. The divisions of Gregg and Wilson camped north of the river, while Wesley Merritt’s command bedded down around the smoldering ruins of the station. 

Stuart had ordered Fitzhugh Lee to dispatch Brigadier General Lunsford Lomax’s brigade to join up with Wickham, then ordered Major General Wade Hampton to send Brigadier General James Gordon and his three NC regiments (1st, 2nd and 5th NC) to join the pursuit as well. Stuart’s force would consist of these three brigades. Knowing the size of Sheridan’s column it is unclear why he left 15 regiments of cavalry back in Spotsylvania Court House and chose to tackle Sheridan with such a small force. Lomax’s brigade started soon after Wickham’s departure, but Gordon’s men had bivouacked that morning well west of Spotsylvania Court House near Locust Grove, and had much farther to travel. By the time Stuart made the Telegraph Road, Lomax’s three VA regiments were already well to the south. Stuart rode quickly and overtook Lomax at Mitchell’s Shop near nightfall. After arriving he quickly designed a plan. He hoped to catch Sheridan’s force split on both sides of the river. Fitzhugh Lee would take Wickham’s brigade and attack the rear of the enemy column holding them in place on the north side of the river. Stuart with Lomax and Gordon would ride west to the Davenport Bridge, where they would cross the North Anna River and attack the part of Sheridan’s force alone on the south side of the river. Stuart may have chosen to ride with them because his wife and children were visiting Colonel Edward Fontaine near Beaver Dam Station. Staffer Theodore Garnett was sent back up the Telegraph Road to inform Gordon of the plan. Garnett rode north until he found Gordon going into camp near Mud Tavern. When Garnett told Gordon that Stuart wanted him to continue south, he first decided to rest his men for a short period after their grueling 40-mile ride. A few hours later Gordon had his men up before daylight heading south. They rode 10 miles to Chilesburg where they received their final instructions. 

Sheridan had anticipated that the Confederates would try to turn his flank upriver at Davenport’s bridge and sent the 5th US Cavalry and the 1st NY Dragoons from Colonel Alfred Gibbs’ brigade commanded by Captain Abraham Arnold to slow the Rebels. He then planned to shift Gregg and Wilson across the North Anna before dawn and combine with Merritt to continue south toward Richmond by way of Negro Foot. Around 4:00 AM the Federals on the north side of the river were awakened by Confederate cannon fire from Breathed’s guns. John Gregg deployed a dismounted force to silence the guns so that his men could eat breakfast. By daylight Gregg was across the river. Meanwhile, Captain Arnold further west on the south side of the river had his hands full trying to contest the crossing of Lomax and Gordon’s brigades. As he arrived at the bridge he found Confederate engineers trying to rebuilt it after it had been destroyed the previous winter by a Yankee raiding party. He drove off the Rebels and destroyed the bridge. He learned from a local Black man that just upstream there was a wagon road that led to a ford, which the engineers had used to cross the river. As Arnold and his men lay in wait there, they saw two brigades of Confederate cavalry in the woods across the river ride further upstream. Arnold detached Lieutenant Wilson with a platoon of men to find the upstream ford the Confederates were headed for. James Gordon sent a dismounted section of the 5th NC to clear the area of the upstream ford. As they traded fire with Wilson’s platoon, a mounted squad from the 5th NC charged across the ford. At the same time, word arrived from Sheridan for Arnold to fall back. Facing two Rebel brigades he quickly complied. With the Rebels racing across the North Anna in their rear, Arnold’s men quickly covered the five miles to Beaver Dam Station only to find that Sheridan was gone! Captain Arnold, on September 1, 1893, would be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Davenport Bridge the citation read “By a gallant charge against a superior force of the enemy, extricated his command from a perilous position in which it had been ordered.”

As Stuart rode with Lomax and Gordon through Beaver Dam Creek he veered off for a short visit with his wife and children on the morning of the 10th to check on their safety. Stuart and his aide Andrew Venable rode up the driveway to the Fontaine residence where his wife Flora and two children were staying. He conversed with her privately then kissed goodbye his four-year-old son James and his seventeen-month-old daughter Virginia Pelham. This would be the last time they would see each other. Stuart and Venable then quickly rode off to rejoin their men.

Sheridan had concentrated his force at the station and left by 8:00 AM. With Alfred Gibbs’ brigade as rearguard they headed south toward Negro Foot. After the Federals left, Wickham crossed the North Anna at Anderson’s ford with the 4th VA Cavalry at the front. As they approached the railroad, part of the 5th U.S. Cavalry blocked the road to slow the Confederate advance. The 2nd and 4th VA charged, scattering the Federals. Wickham’s brigade then took up the chase after Sheridan. Captain Arnold’s men pressed south as well not knowing that Wickham now blocked their path. Soon they ran into the tail of Wickham’s column and tried to cut through it to no avail. Regrouping they did manage to swing wide and slip around them and catch the Federal column on the other side of the Little River. Arnold had lost two officers, including Lieutenant Wilson, and sixty-eight enlisted men.

Stuart, Lomax and Gordon caught up with Wickham who informed them that the Yankees were busy obstructing the Negro Foot Road with barricades and downed trees slowing his ability to pursue. If Stuart was going to beat Sheridan to Richmond he would need to change course. Stuart knew that Sheridan would take the most direct route through Negro Foot to the Mountain Road then head southeast to Telegraph Road. In order to beat him there Stuart would need to get to the intersection of Mountain and Telegraph Roads first, see map below. Stuart ordered Gordon to continue to pursue Sheridan doing what he could to slow him down. He would ride with Fitz Lee’s two brigades east to Hanover Junction, then south on the Telegraph Road to the intersection. He hoped that the commander of the Richmond defenses, General Braxton Bragg, would advance some of the home guard infantry to help even the odds. Lee’s two brigades faced a hard ride if they were going to beat the Federals there.

At the head of Sheridan’s column, the Confederate 1st MD Cavalry under Colonel Brown tried to slow the Federals. Brown had 20 men on top of a hill as bait and when the Yankees chased them over the hill they came under fire from Rebels hidden in a ravine. Brown’s men were driven off by the 1st ME but Sheridan’s men did suffer some casualties in the process. Gordon could not catch Sheridan’s rearguard due to all the obstructions in the road. Around 4:15 PM, Sheridan camped for the day across the South Anna River at Ground Squirrel Bridge 18 miles below Beaver Dam. Sheridan ordered the bridge burned. Aware that the showdown was soon coming he was making sure his men and horses were well fed and rested.

Late in the day Gordon’s exhausted troopers finally arrived on the opposite side of the river and went into camp. On a warm afternoon the two Confederate brigades of Lomax and Wickham along with Fitz Lee and JEB Stuart were riding at breakneck speed for Hanover Junction  arriving there around 9:00 p.m. They rode on another mile and a half and camped at Taylorsville. While there he learned that Sheridan was at Ground Squirrel Bridge. Stuart wanted to continue south on toward Richmond but Fitz Lee persuaded him that his men get some rest. Stuart agreed to a four-hour break. He had a member of his staff, Henry McClellan, stay awake to make sure the men were up by 1:00 AM. At the prescribed time McClellan watched Fitz Lee lead his division south onto Telegraph Road at 3:00 AM. He then returned to Stuart and woke him and his staff. McClellan then dozed off. Stuart left a courier with him to ride with him when he woke up, as he and his staff rode off south.

At this point Sheridan decided to divide his command. Colonel John Gregg’s brigade would picket the South Anna River and act as the rear guard. Henry Davies was ordered to take his brigade to Ashland and destroy the railroad and depot there, while Merritt and Wilson’s divisions would continue on the Mountain Road passing the Meadow Farm, crossing the Richmond, Fredericksburg and Potomac Railroad at Allen’s Station, toward its intersection with the Telegraph Road, a distance of 12 miles.

Davies left at 2:00 AM, and the rest of Sheridan’s force headed out a few hours later. At Hanover Junction Stuart’s column began their trek south on the Telegraph Road along with Captain W. Hunter Griffin’s Baltimore Light Artillery on loan from Colonel Bradley T. Johnson, commander of the Confederate Maryland Battalion, who was headquartered there. Stuart now had a total of 10 guns. Johnson watched the column ride off and sent a telegram to Braxton Bragg in Richmond. He stated his own scouts had reported back with news of Sheridan’s movement on the Mountain Road and that the enemy’s column was passing Ground Squirrel Church proving that their destination was Richmond. He added that Stuart’s rear has just passed Taylorsville. The two forces were headed on a collision course. Lunsford Lomax’s brigade was in the lead as the column moved quickly through Ashland. Just after Lomax’s men cleared town, Davies’ arrived from the west with the 1st MA, 1st NJ, 6th Ohio, and 1st Pennsylvania Cavalry. Munford’s 2nd VA the lead brigade of Wickham’s brigade entered town but were driven back. The Yankees destroyed the depot and its stores, as well as the local post office. Colonel Thomas Munford rallied his men and advanced them dismounted to the east side of town. Using local houses, fences and bushes for cover they fired on the 1st MA killing Lieutenant Edward Hopkins. During a lull in the action Davies withdrew and rejoined Merritt and Wilson at Allen’s Station.

Wickham’s men then followed Lomax down the Telegraph Road. Meanwhile, James Gordon advanced to find the Ground Squirrel Bridge burned. Although the river was thought to be unfordable he did find an old ford where the banks were 15 feet tall and his men were able to cross engaging the Federal pickets there. The main body of Gregg’s brigade were at Goodall’s Tavern on the Old Stage Road from Gordonsville to Richmond. Near 7:00 AM as they came to the top of a hill north of the tavern, Gordon came under fire from Federal sharpshooters using the Tavern’s buildings for cover. Gordon took temporary command of the 1st NC and ordered its Colonel William Cheek to take a squadron from the 5th NC and flank them forcing the sharpshooters back. Gordon advanced the 1st and 5th NC forward dismounted, while the 2nd NC attacked Gregg’s flank. The Federal line broke and fell back to the Ground Squirrel Church, where another flank attack pushed them back several miles. Despite the two setbacks Colonel J. Irvin Gregg’s 1st ME delayed the North Carolinians attempts to slow Sheridan’s advance as he continued on toward Richmond. As Merritt and Wilson approached Allen’s Station, now reunited with Davies’ command back from Ashland, they destroyed the station and with Gibbs’ 6th PA at the van continued on. A contingent stayed behind to destroy more track toward Hungary Station as the main column moved on. Gibbs’ brigade took the point, with the 6th PA out in front, followed by Merritt, Wilson and Gregg. At 6:30 AM Stuart sent a dispatch to Richmond that he was still north of the Chickahominy River and that his men and  horses were tired and hungry and that a Federal contingent had raided Ashland. Soon thereafter, he received word that Lomax’s advance had reached the intersection where the Mountain Road from the northwest meets the Telegraph Road from the northeast to form the Brook Road six miles from Richmond and that the Yankees were nowhere to be seen. A short distance south on the east side of the Brook Road stood the abandoned Yellow Tavern. Stuart had won the race to Yellow Tavern.

Next- The Battle of Yellow Tavern- May 11, 1864