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owing to the escape, by bribery, of a culprit from prison, who gave the
Confederates information of the approaching danger.
Wistar found Bottom's Bridge and the line of the
Chickahominy too strongly guarded, and there appeared too many evidences of strength beyond it to warrant him in: attempting to cross the stream, so he returned to New Kent, without loss,. his infantry having marched eighty miles within fifty-six hours, and his cavalry one hundred and fifty miles in fifty hours.
This raid was followed a little later by a more formidable one from the Army of the Potomac, led by
General Kilpatrick.
Its object was to effect the release of the
Union captives at
Richmond, then suffering terribly by cruelty and starvation in the filthy Libby Prison, and more horribly .on bleak
Belle Isle, in the
James River, in front of
Richmond — circumstances which we shall consider hereafter.
Kilpatrick left camp at three o'clock on Sunday morning,
with five thousand cavalry, picked from his own and the divisions of
Merritt and
Gregg, and crossing the
Rapid Anna at Elly's Ford, swept around the right flank of
Lee's army, by way of Spottsylvania Court-House, and pushing rapidly toward
Richmond, struck the Virginia Central railway, at
Beaver Dam Station, on the evening of the 29th, where had his first serious encounter with the
Confederates.
While small parties were out, tearing up the road and destroying public property, he was. attacked by some troops that came up from
Richmond, under the
Maryland traitor,
Bradley T. Johnson. These he defeated, in a sharp skirmish, when he struck across the
South Anna, and cut the Fredericksburg and Richmond railway at Kilby Station.
This accomplished, he pushed on by
Ashland, and along the
Brooks turnpike, and, early on the first day of March,
halted within three miles and a half of
Richmond, and within its outer line of fortifications, at which the
Confederates had thrown down their arms and then fled into the city.
At Spottsylvania Court-House, about five hundred of
Kilpatrick's best men, led by
Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, a dashing young officer, and son of
Admiral Dahlgren, then before
Charleston, diverged from the main column, for the purpose of sweeping through the country more to the right, by way of Frederickshall, and through
Louisa and
Goochland Counties, to the
James River, above
Richmond, where they intended to destroy as much of the
James River canal — as possible, cross the stream, and, attacking the
Confederate capital from the south simultaneously with
Kilpatrick's assault
