As the sun rose Lomax’s men were hurrying down Telegraph Road. Sometime before 8:00 AM pickets from the 6th VA reached the intersection with the Mountain Road. Here, on the east side of the road, stood a rundown abandoned hotel known as Yellow Tavern. The intersection was deserted and the men hunkered down to await further orders. Shortly thereafter Fitzhugh Lee arrived with the rest of Lomax’s brigade. He formed the 6th VA near the intersection facing west with the 5th and 15th VA north of them on the Telegraph Road. Lee placed Major James Breathed’s guns on a slight elevation in his right rear. Lomax headquartered on the ridge north of Turner’s Run and left Colonel Henry Pate of the 5th Virginia in command of the brigade, see map below from a Civil War Trails sign.

Pate and his staff led a group of skirmishers across an open field west of the road into a dense growth of woods. Here a deep gully ran parallel to his battleline. He lined the depression with skirmishers and placed mounted pickets farther west. He also deployed a strong group of sharpshooters to cover his left. With his line established he awaited Sheridan. Around 9:00 AM the 6th VA pickets began to take skirmish fire from the 6th PA under Colonel Alfred Gibbs on the Mountain Road. Gibbs formed his Reserve Brigade into battle formation. Stuart dispatched Henry McClellan to find out the state of affairs in Richmond and report back as quickly as possible. 

As he approached Yellow Tavern, Union Colonel Alfred Gibbs’ brigade came under artillery fire. He dismounted his command and moved them east into the woods. Merritt came up and ordered Colonel Thomas Devin to dismount the Second Brigade and deploy on Gibbs’ right. Devin moved the 17th PA and the 6th NY forward, where they moved through the woods south of the roadway and cut off the Telegraph Road. He dismounted the rest of his men and formed a line centered on the 9th NY. As Gibbs and Devin engaged Pate’s left flank, Merritt was also advancing Custer’s Michiganders on Gibbs left, see map below. Merritt’s division was fully deployed.

Custer ordered the 5th and 6th MI to dismount and with the 6th on the right they moved into the woods. The 1st and 7th were in reserve. Merritt’s entire division was engaged. The Federals were steadily pressing Pate’s men east. At this point Wickham began arriving on the ridge to the north. Stuart directed them west along the heights, as shown on the map above.

Pressured across his front and flanked on his left, Pate fell back out of the woods across an open field back to the Telegraph Road with Custer’s men pursuit. As the Michiganders moved into the open they were enfiladed by Wickham’s men. Facing fire from the left and front they fell back to the woods. Their advance stymied for the moment. Custer redeployed the 6th MI to the left of the 5th and from the woods line returned fire. Stuart strengthened his position by placing the Maryland Battery on the ridgeline east of the road, where they could more effectively fire on Custer’s men. He ordered Theodore Garnett to tell Colonel Pate to hold his position at all hazards. Gibbs and Devin’s 9th NY advanced from the south and west forcing the 5th and 15th VA north up Telegraph Road as Custer pushed forward. The Federals flanked Pate’s line on both sides. Breathed’s battery, in danger of being cut off, withdrew from the ridge line. When Gibbs’ men opened fire with their 7-shot carbines the 6th VA broke and fled to the east. They were followed by the 15th VA. Pate and the 5th Virginia fought on. As Pate was standing on one of the ditch banks trying to rally his men he was shot in the head and the 5th VA crumbled. From the ridgeline, Stuart watched as Pate’s men were overwhelmed by a sea of blue. The battle seemed lost. Wickham’s men and their remaining artillery opened fire on Custer. He then advanced and struck Custer’s men in the flank pushing them back west into the woods. The Yankees pulled back for now. It was 2:00 o’clock in the afternoon.

In Richmond, Henry McClellan learned that Bragg could only muster 4,000 irregulars, which he thought could hold a defensive line against Sheridan. He expected three brigades from Petersburg to arrive shortly and would advance them when they arrived. Sheridan was concerned that a Confederate thrust from the city could compromise his position at Yellow Tavern so during this lull in the fighting as he waited for Wilson’s division to come up he ordered Thomas Devin to advance down the Brook Turnpike and test the city’s defenses. Devin sent the 6th NY and 17th PA, along with a section of Williston’s battery, to crush any enemy activity from that direction, but there was little evidence of any Rebel force of significance north of the the capital. His men rode two miles south and easily overran the outer line of works and found the inner works only lightly held. Devin assured Sheridan that there was no threat from that direction. Reinforcements from Richmond would not be arriving anytime soon. This is interpreted in the images below.

McClellan managed to avoid Devin’s men on his return trip. He informed Stuart of Bragg’s hope to reinforce him. At this point the Confederate line on the crown of the ridge extended for about half a mile. Wickham’s regiments arranged from left to right were the 1st, 3rd, 4th and 2nd VA then the Baltimore Light Artillery just east of the Telegraph Road. To the east of Wickham stood the remnants of Lomax’s shattered brigade with barely enough men for a skirmish line. At this point, Stuart probably had fewer than 1,500 men facing at least 7,000 Federals. Stuart’s men were running out of ammunition and his supply wagons were far behind him another consequence of their rapid advance to Yellow Tavern. He ordered an aide to take twenty men to Richmond to bring back all the cartidges they could carry. Sheridan realized that he could not take Stuart’s position with only one division. When Wilson came up he aligned on Merritt’s left. Sheridan was preparing a massive assault with two divisions attacking Stuart’s two brigades, shown on the map below. His plan was for Custer to first lead a mounted charge and take out the battery on the ridge.

Custer ordered the lst MI onto the Telegraph Road, supported by the 7th MI and the lst VT. They would charge straight up the road at the guns on the ridge. The rest of the Federals advanced dismounted. Devin to Custer’s right, the 5th and 6th MI to Custer’s left. James Wilson’s newly arrived division would be positioned further to the left. At 4:00 PM Lieutenant Edward Heaton’s battery opened on the Baltimore Light artillery. In addition, Sheridan had Colonel George Chapman’s dismounted 3rd IN and 8th NY moving toward Wickham’s right flank. Led by James Wilson they attacked the 4th VA just as the dismounted 5th and 6th MI started up the ridge. After some difficulty negotiating obstructions on the Telegraph Road and crossing a narrow bridge over Turner’s Run the 1st Michigan rode up the ridge running into a company of Lomax’s 6th VA coming up the other side of the ridge on the road. The 1st MI pushed the Virginians back capturing two of the Baltimore guns. To the east of the road what remained of Lomax’s brigade, under assault by Gibbs, fled the field in several directions. The 4th VA on the right also began to give way. In the center, a charge by the 6th VA briefly stymied Custer’s advance up the ridge. Stuart was near the battery and had called up reserves from the 1st VA Cavalry to defend it. They managed to move elements of the Wolverines who had streamed by the guns on both sides back past them in the opposite direction. One of those men, Private John Huff of the 5th MI had served in Berdan’s sharpshooters. As he was running back toward the guns he spotted spotted a Rebel officer on his horse. He fired his pistol and struck the officer in the abdomen. It was General Stuart. The assertion that Huff is the person who shot Stuart is based on the after action report submitted by his commanding officer Colonel Russell Alger two months after the battle. Alger wrote that Huff fired on an officer “accompanied by a large staff and escort, carrying a battle flag.” However, Stuart was not near any of his staff when when killed. His staff were performing other functions at the time. Captain Dorsey held Stuart up until they could get help transferring the wounded general onto a calmer horse and he was escorted to the rear. Two weeks before Alger’s report was filed Private Huff died from wounds suffered at Haw’s Shop, as a result Huff’s side of the wounding was never told. Fitzhugh Lee was trying to rally Wickham’s disintegrating line when a courier arrived with the news of Stuart’s wounding and he rode to the ridge to see him. Stuart was loaded into an ambulance as Dr. John B. Fontaine arrived to inspect the wound.

Fitzhugh Lee recognized the futility of the Confederate position and moved what was left of Wickham’s command back off the ridge, as the 7th MI and 1st VT were moving onto it. The Confederates fled in all directions most back north of the Chickahominy River. During this time Gordon who had been harassing Sheridan’s rear tried to join the fight. Colonel Gregg’s men still acting as the rear guard were tearing up track at Allen’s Station when Gordon attacked. Gregg moved to a ridge behind the railroad bed with Captain Alanson Randol’s battery and the combination of canister and 7-shot carbines decimated Gordon’s men. Stuart was transported to his brother-in-law’s house, Dr. Charles Brewer, on Grace Street in Richmond.

The battlefield has been completely overrun by development. It is interpreted by several signs and a monument.

Next- The Battle of Yellow Tavern- The Battle of Meadow Bridge and the Death of JEB Stuart