Virginia 5th Cavalry (Confederate)

First Bull Run

One of earliest battles of the Civil War, it introduced Americans to the idea that this would likely not be a short conflict and blood would be shed:READ MORE

Williamsburg

Following the Confederate withdrawal from their Yorktown position, Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was not prepared to mount an immediate pursuit with his entire force from the siege lines he had occupied for nearly a month. Initially, he was able to send forward only a portion of his army, led by the Third Corps of Samuel P. Heitzelman, to follow Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's Confederates. Heitzelman's divisions, led by Brig. Gens. Joseph Hooker and Phil Kearny, made contact with Johnston's army four miles sout…READ MORE

Gaines' Mill

Despite his victory over the Confederates at Beaver Dam Creek on June 26th, Maj. Gen. Fitz John Porter's Fifth Corps abandoned its position early on June 27th and established a new defensive line along Boatswain's Creek, just north of the Chickahominy River.READ MORE

Malvern Hill

On June 30th, the retreating Federal Army of the Potomac finally stopped at the James River at the end of seven days of fighting outside of Richmond.READ MORE

Second Bull Run

After the early summer collapse of the Union Peninsula Campaign offensive to capture Richmond, Robert E. Lee sought to move his army north and threaten Washington DC before Union forces could regroup.READ MORE

Major GeneralJ.E.B. Stuart

Chantilly

Confederate Maj. Gen. "Stonewall" Jackson hoped to cut off the Union retreat from Manassas the day after the Confederate victory at the second battle fought there. Jackson's wing of Lee's army made a wide, flanking march, screened by Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry, north and then east, to take the strategically important village of Germantown. There, Maj. Gen. John Pope's only two retreat routes to Washington - the Warrenton Pike and the Little River Turnpike - converged. On September 1st, beyond Chanti…READ MORE

South Mountain

After his success at Second Manassas, Gen. Robert E. Lee led the Army of Northern Virginia north across the Potomac River on an invasion of Maryland in September of 1862. Lee divided his army, sending a portion of it into western Maryland while Lieut. Gen. Stonewall Jackson's wing attempted to capture the Federal garrison at Harper's Ferry. The bold plan was jeopardized on September 13th when a mislaid copy of Lee's orders revealing the Confederates' plans was given to Union commander Maj. Gen. George B. M…READ MORE

Major GeneralJames E.B. Stuart

Antietam

The Army of the Potomac, under the command of Maj. Gen. George McClellan, mounted a series of powerful assaults against General Robert E. Lee's forces along Antietam Creek near Sharpsburg, Maryland, on September 17th, 1862.READ MORE

Thomas L. Rosser

Fredericksburg

In early November, Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside took command of the Army of the Potomac, and made immediate plans to move the army once again toward Richmond.READ MORE

Kelly's Ford

In 1863, the recently organized Union Cavalry Corps possessed superior equipment and the advantages of a plentiful supply of men and horses over their Confederate counterparts, but lacked the confidence, experience, and leadership to challenge Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's troopers. That March, Confederate cavalry under Brig. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee conducted raids against elements of the Union line along the Rappahannock River. In response, on March 16th, 2,100 Union cavalrymen under Brig. Gen. William Averell se…READ MORE

ColonelThomas L. Rosser

Brigadier GeneralWilliam H. F. Lee

Major GeneralJ. E. B. Stuart

Chancellorsville

On April 27, 1863, Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker launched a turning movement designed to pry Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia out of its lines at Fredericksburg.READ MORE

Brandy Station

> *As we emerged from the woods into an open space or field where our mounted skirmishers were deployed, it was clearly discovered that our troops were confronted with a heavy line of infantry, who, with weapons of a longer range than that of our carbines, were dismounting our men at a fearful rate, whilst they were unable to inflict any punishment upon the enemy. As Colonel Devin approached the skirmish line, he at once became the target for the Rebel sharp shooters and, the way the minnie balls were whiz…READ MORE

Aldie

Less than two weeks after the start of the Gettysburg Campaign, Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry successfully screened the Confederate infantry as it marched north behind the sheltering Blue Ridge Mountains. The Union Cavalry Corps commander, Brig. Gen. Alfred Pleasanton, ordered forward the division of Brig. Gen. David McMurtrie Gregg to penetrate Stuart's screen. The probing Federals of Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalry brigade, in the advance of Gregg's division, encountered Col. Thomas T. Munford…READ MORE

Upperville

On June 21st, Union cavalry made a another determined effort to pierce Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's cavalry screen of Robert E. Lee's invading army as it moved north. Two days after skirmishing with the Union cavalry brigade of Col. J. Irvin Gregg in and around Middleburg, Brig. Gens. Wade Hampton and Beverly Robertson's brigades made a stand and beat back Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg's division near a stone bridge over Goose Creek, four miles east of Upperville. Gregg called for infantry support, and received…READ MORE

Brigadier GeneralFitzhugh Lee

Gettysburg

In the summer of 1863, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched his second invasion of the Northern states. Lee sought to capitalize on recent Confederate victories and defeat the Union army on Northern soil, which he hoped would force the Lincoln administration to negotiate for peace. Lee also sought to take the war out of the ravaged Virginia farmland and gather supplies for his Army of Northern Virginia. Using the Shenandoah Valley as cover for his army, Lee was pursued first by Union Maj. Gen. Joseph Ho…READ MORE

Williamsport

During the night of July 4-5th, General Robert E. Lee's battered army began its retreat from Gettysburg, moving southwest toward Hagerstown and the Potomac River crossing at Williamsport, screened by Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart's cavalry. Lee's infantry reached the rain-swollen Potomac but could not cross, the pontoon bridge having been destroyed by a cavalry raid. On July 11th, Lee entrenched a line protecting the river crossings at Williamsport and waited for Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's army to advance. On…READ MORE

Brigadier GeneralLunsford L. Lomax

Major GeneralFitzhugh Lee

Wilderness

The first battle between Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee erupted late in the morning of May 5, 1864, as Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's Union V Corps attacked Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell's Second Corps on the Orange Turnpike southwest of the old Chancellorsville battlefield. Although Federal infantry managed to break through at several points, the Confederate line held. Fighting shifted to the south as Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill's Third Corps engaged Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock's II Corps and ele…READ MORE

Spotsylvania Court House

Following the Battle of the Wilderness, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant marched the Union army south with the hope of capturing Spotsylvania Court House and preventing Robert E. Lee's army from retreating further. Lee's Confederates, however, managed to get ahead of the Federals and block the road. Fighting began on May 8th, when the Union Fifth Corps under Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren and the Sixth Corps under Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick engaged Confederate Maj. Gen. Richard Anderson's First Corps at Laurel Hi…READ MORE

Yellow Tavern

It was early morning when the column of gray- and butternut-clad horsemen reined up and came to a halt along the Telegraph Road. Exhausted, they dismounted and put their horses under cover near a ramshackle, three-story structure. Once a wayside inn, it had long since been abandoned, but was still known locally for the color of its failing siding: Yellow Tavern.READ MORE

Cold Harbor

After two days of inconclusive fighting along Totopotomoy Creek northeast of Richmond, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Gen. Robert E. Lee turned their sights on the crossroads of Cold Harbor. Roads emanating through this critical junction led to Richmond as well as supply and reinforcement sources for the Union army. On May 31, 1864, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's cavalry captured Cold Harbor. The next day, Sheridan held the crossroads against a Confederate attack. With reinforcements from both armies arriving…READ MORE

CaptainRuben Boston

Trevilian Station

In June of 1864, hoping to draw attention away from Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's movement south, destroy supply lines, and join up with Brig. Gen. David Hunter in Charlottesville, Union cavalry commander Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan embarked on a cavalry raid. Near Trevilian Station, Virginia, he clashed with Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gens. Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee. On June 11th, while Hampton's men struggled against Union forces on one road, Lee's men advancing on a parallel road fell back, allow…READ MORE

Second Petersburg

As the Overland Campaign concluded, the strategic goals of Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant shifted from the defeat of Robert E. Lee's army in the field to eliminating the supply and communication routes to the Confederate capital at Richmond. The city of Petersburg, 24 miles south of Richmond, was the junction point of five railroads that supplied the entire upper James River region. Grant knew Petersburg was the key to the capture of Richmond and that Lee would be forced to defend it. Marching south from Co…READ MORE

Crater

Two weeks after Union forces arrived to invest the Confederate defenders of Petersburg, the battle lines of both sides had settled into a stalemate. Since Cold Harbor, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was reluctant to mount a frontal attack against well-entrenched Confederates. By late June, Grant's lines covered most of the eastern approaches to Petersburg, but neither side seemed ready to risk an offensive move. Part of the Union line was held by Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's Ninth Corps. Some of Burnside'…READ MORE

ColonelWilliam Payne

Brigadier GeneralWilliams Wickham

Third Winchester

To clear the Shenandoah River valley of Confederates, Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan moved on Winchester in mid-September 1864. Sheridan's force of over 39,000 men was more than twice the size of Maj. Gen. Jubal Early's Confederate army defending the valley. After Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw's division left Winchester to rejoin Robert E. Lee's army at Petersburg, Early renewed his raids on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad at Martinsburg in the lower valley, dispersing his four remaining infantry divisions. On Septem…READ MORE

Tom's Brook

After his victory at Fisher's Hill, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan pursued Gen. Jubal Early's army up the Shenandoah Valley to near Staunton. On October 6th, Sheridan began withdrawing, as his cavalry burned everything that could be deemed of military significance, including barns and mills in what became known as "Red October" or "the Burning." Reinforced by Brig. Gen. Joseph Kershaw's division, Early followed Sheridan. Maj. Gen. Thomas Rosser arrived from Petersburg to take command of Fitz Lee's cavalry divis…READ MORE

ColonelWilliam H. F. Payne

Brigadier GeneralThomas L. Rosser

Cedar Creek

Also known as: Cedar Creek, Belle GroveREAD MORE

Fort Stedman

By March of 1865, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's grip on the Confederate lines around Petersburg was having its desired effect. Outnumbered and weakened by disease, desertion and shortage of food and supplies, Gen. Robert E. Lee had few options. After careful study of the Union troops in his sector of the line, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon suggested to Lee the possibility of a successful offensive strike against Grant. In front of Gordon's men, Union-held Fort Stedman seemed the best target for a Confederate a…READ MORE

Lieutenant ColonelJames H. Allen

Brigadier GeneralWilliam H. F. Payne

ColonelReuben B. Boston

ColonelThomas T. Munford

Brigadier GeneralWilliam H. F. Payne

Five Forks

The Union victory along the White Oak Road on March 31st threatened to destabilize the entire Confederate line west of Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee ordered Maj. Gen. George Pickett with his infantry division and the cavalry divisions of Col. Thomas Munford, Maj. Gen. W.H.F. Lee, and Maj. Gen Thomas Rosser to hold the vital crossroads of Five Forks, along the White Oak Road five miles west of the previous fighting there. Pickett's defensive line was not well constructed, and much of his cavalry force w…READ MORE

Third Petersburg

With the Confederate defeat at Five Forks on April 1st, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George Meade ordered a general assault against the Petersburg lines by the Second, Ninth, Sixth and Twenty-Fourth Corps to take place April 2nd. In the pre-dawn darkness, the Union infantry gained a successful breakthrough where Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright's advancing Sixth Corps met the Confederate lines held by Maj. Gen. A. P. Hill near the Boydton Plank Road. Hill was killed trying to reach his troops in t…READ MORE

Sailor's Creek

Five days after Robert E. Lee's men retreated from the trenches of Petersburg, cavalry under Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan effectively cut off three separate corps of Lee's army near Sailor's Creek, a tributary of the Appomattox River, while the Union Second and Sixth Corps approached from the east. On April 6th, two brigades of Andrew H. Humphrey's Second Corps overwhelmed two brigades of Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's division as the Confederates struggled to move their supply and artillery trains across the creek…READ MORE

Appomattox Court House

Between 26,000 and 28,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered and were paroled.READ MORE