Background
The plan was Kilpatrick's. Known as "Kill-Cavalry"—a nickname intended to suggest his daring but also his recklessness—the general hoped to build on the tactical success of his raids around Richmond the previous spring. (The raids had alarmed Richmonders but did little to support Union general Joseph Hooker, who, during the Chancellorsville Campaign, had charged his cavalry with cutting Robert E. Lee's supply line. They failed.) Kilpatrick's proposal would also right the wrongs of several abortive attempts to rescue Union prisoners who, by all accounts, were suffering terribly at Belle Isle and Libby Prison.
The Raid
Kilpatrick and Dahlgren set out from Stevensburg, Virginia, on the evening of February 28. The following afternoon, Kilpatrick and his detachment of 3,500 men reached Beaver Dam Station and began ripping up rails and destroying Confederate property. They failed, however, to prevent an approaching train from reaching Richmond and spreading the alarm. Confederate home guard units mobilized around the capital, and late that evening Confederate cavalrymen under Major General Wade Hampton set off in pursuit of the raiders. By March 2, after slow progress through sleet, snow, and rain, Kilpatrick reached the inner defensive lines of Richmond. But with no sign of Dahlgren inside the city, Kilpatrick retreated eastward. On the night of March 2, Kilpatrick considered another attack on Richmond, but the arrival of Hampton's troopers foiled these plans. Some historians have also pointed out that Kilpatrick had made no arrangements for arming, feeding, or transporting the freed prisoners, a fact which may have given him pause. Kilpatrick finally reached the safety of Union lines at Yorktown on March 4.
Aftermath
The raid accomplished nothing except minor damage to railroads and buildings. The death of Dahlgren, however, led to one of the most controversial episodes of the war. A thirteen-year-old member of Richmond's home guard discovered on the Union colonel's body handwritten orders for the burning of Richmond and the assassination of Davis and his cabinet. Outraged Confederate authorities published them in the press, catching Union generals and politicians off guard. Dahlgren's father, among many others in the North, insisted they were fabrications, while the Richmond Examiner waxed indignant: "The depredations of the last Yankee raiders, and the wantonness of their devastation equal anything heretofore committed during the war."
Union spy Elizabeth Van Lew assumed Dahlgren's innocence and, disturbed at what she perceived to be the Confederates' mistreatment of his corpse, set herself to finding it. Acting on a tip from an African American who witnessed Dahlgren's secret burial in Oakwood Cemetery, Van Lew and the Richmond underground managed to unearth the body and rebury it in what was, by their lights, a more proper manner. When Confederates agreed to transfer Dahlgren's remains north to his father, they found the grave empty. "Dahlgren had risen," exclaimed the Richmond Examiner, "or been resurrected."
Time Line
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February 16, 1864 - Union cavalry brigadier general H. Judson Kilpatrick draws up plans for a raid on the Confederate capital at Richmond. His goal is to destroy Confederate infrastructure and free Union prisoners of war.
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February 23, 1864 - Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren joins a planned raid on Richmond by H. Judson Kilpatrick. Dahlgren's death would precipitate one of the most controversial episodes of the war.
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February 28, 1864, 6 p.m. - Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren, along with 460 cavalrymen, embarks on a raid against Richmond, splashing across Ely's Ford on the Rapidan River by 11 p.m. Brigadier General H. Judson Kilpatrick leaves with his detachment of 3,500 men at 7 p.m.
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February 29, 1864, 8 a.m. - Union brigadier general H. Judson Kilpatrick reaches Spotsylvania in his cavalry raid against Richmond.
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February 29, 1864, 5 p.m. - Union brigadier general H. Judson Kilpatrick and his men reach Beaver Dam Station, in Hanover County, on their way to Richmond. They burn the station but are spotted by Confederates, who raise the alarm in the capital.
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February 29, 1864, 10:30 p.m. - Confederate cavalry general Wade Hampton sets out in pursuit of Union cavalry raiders led by H. Judson Kilpatrick and Ulric Dahlgren.
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March 1, 1864 - Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren splits his cavalry detachment, sending a hundred men to destroy Confederate infrastructure, while Dahlgren proceeds with the remainder of the men toward Richmond.
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March 1, 1864, 10 a.m. - Union cavalry general H. Judson Kilpatrick reaches the outer defenses of Richmond, and waits in vain for Ulric Dahlgren's men to enter the city.
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March 1, 1864, 1 p.m. - Union cavalry general H. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry raiders advance as far as the inner line of Richmond's defenses.
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March 1, 1864, 3 p.m. - After waiting in vain for the arrival of Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren's detachment of raiders, Union general H. Judson Kilpatrick decides to withdraw his cavalrymen from the outskirts of Richmond.
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March 2, 1864, 4 p.m. - Confederate forces near the capital at Richmond close in on cavalry raiders commanded by Colonel Ulric Dahlgren.
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March 2–3, 1864, 10 p.m.–1 a.m. - Union general H. Judson Kilpatrick retreats from the outskirts of Richmond after being surprised by Confederate cavalry commanded by Major General Wade Hampton.
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March 2, 1864, 11:30 p.m. - A band of cavalrymen and bushwhackers under command of Lieutenant James Pollard of the 9th Virginia Cavalry ambush Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren and kill him.
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March 3, 1864 - When inspecting the personal effects of killed Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren, William Littlepage, a thirteen-year-old member of Richmond’s Home Guard, discovers orders calling for the burning of Richmond and the assassination of Confederate president Jefferson Davis and his cabinet. He passes them on to his teacher, Edward W. Halbach.
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March 3, 1864 - Union brigadier general H. Judson Kilpatrick sets out toward Union general Benjamin F. Butler's lines on the Peninsula following his failed raid on Richmond. Large numbers of slaves follow in the wake of the Union column.
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March 4, 1864, 4 p.m. - Union general H. Judson Kilpatrick returns to Union lines, marking the end of his and Ulric Dahlgren's failed raid on Richmond.
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March 5, 1864 - Richmond newspapers run reports of the "Dahlgren Papers," found on the body of Union colonel Ulric Dahlgren after he was killed in a failed raid on the Confederate capital.
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April 4, 1864 - In light of the fiasco that was the Kilpatrick–Dahlgren Raid, Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant relieves Army of the Potomac cavalry commander Alfred Pleasonton from duty and replaces him with Philip H. Sheridan. H. Judson Kilpatrick loses his division and takes command of a brigade.
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April 16, 1864 - In response to a query from Confederate general Robert E. Lee, Union general George G. Meade questions Union general H. Judson Kilpatrick as to the authenticity of the so-called Dahlgren Papers. Kilpatrick tells Meade that he had no knowledge of the incendiary orders.
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Categories
- Civil War, American (1861–1865)
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First published: January 30, 2009 | Last modified: April 5, 2011