Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 3.

[40] Kilpatrick, with his regiment, dashed into the little village of Louisa Court-House, terrifying the inhabitants by his unexpected visit, and obtaining some supplies. After skirmishing with some of W. H. F. Lee's troops that attacked them, the Nationals, toward evening, moved off to Thompson's Four Corners, where, at midnight, Stoneman gave orders for operations upon Lee's communications by separate parties, led respectively by General David McM. Gregg, Colonel Percy Wyndham, Colonel Hugh Judson Kilpatrick, and Colonel Hasbrouck Davis.

In the bright moonlight these expeditions started on their destructive errands. Wyndham, with the First Maine and First New Jersey, pushed southward to Columbia, on the James River, and on the morning of the 3d, destroyed canal boats, bridges, a large quantity of Confederate supplies and medical stores; tried to demolish the massive stone aqueduct there where the waters of the canal flow over the river, and then rejoined Stoneman. Kilpatrick, with the Harris Light Cavalry (Sixth New York), reached Hungary Station, on the Fredericksburg railway, on the morning of the 4th, destroyed the depots and railroad there, crossed to the Brook turnpike, and, sweeping down within two miles of Richmond, captured a lieutenant and eleven men within the fortifications of the Confederate capital. Then he struck the Virginia Central railway at Meadow Bridge, on the Chickahominy, destroyed that structure and some railway property, and, dashing across the Pamunkey and the Mattapony the next day,

May 5, 1863.

went raiding through the country without molestation, destroying Confederate property here and there, and reaching Gloucester Point, on the York, on the 7th.

Meanwhile Lieutenant-Colonel Davis, with the Twelfth Illinois, swept along the line of the South Anna to the Fredericksburg railway at Ashland, where he intercepted an ambulance train filled with wounded soldiers from Chancellorsville. These were paroled. Then the road and other railway property was destroyed there, when Davis pushed on to Hanover Court-House, on the Virginia Central railway, swept away the depot by fire, and tore up the track in that vicinity. He then followed the line of the road to within seven miles of Richmond, when he inclined to the left and started for Williamsburg. Near the site of the White House¹ he met and skirmished with Confederate cavalry, and being repulsed, he inclined still more to the left, crossed the Pamunkey and Mattapony, and reached Gloucester Point without further interruption. Gregg and Buford had, meanwhile, been raiding in the neighborhood of the South Anna, closely watched by Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee. They burnt — the bridges in their march. Dashing upon Hanover Junction, they destroyed the railway property there, and damaged the road. Finally the whole of Stoneman's command, excepting the forces under Kilpatrick and Davis, was concentrated at Yanceyville, when it marched northward, crossed the Rapid Anna at the Raccoon Ford, and on Friday, the 8th of May, recrossed the Rappahannock at Kelly's Ford. Much property had been destroyed during the raid, but the chief object of the expedition, namely, the effectual destruction of Lee's communications with Richmond, was not accomplished, and the week's work of the cavalry,