SUMMARY
The Battle of Trevilian Station, fought June 11–12, 1864, during the American Civil War (1861–1865), was a victory for Confederate cavalry under Wade Hampton when they turned back Union raiders under the command of General Philip H. Sheridan. Fought solely by cavalry, this was the largest such battle during the war (the larger Battle of Brandy Station, fought a year earlier during the Gettysburg Campaign, involved some infantry). Union general-in-chief Ulysses S. Grant had hoped that Sheridan’s troopers might destroy the Virginia Central Railroad west to Charlottesville while distracting Robert E. Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia enough that Grant might sneak across the James River and around to Petersburg. Instead, Hampton’s cavalry blocked the way, and although Sheridan claimed to have decommissioned the railroad, he was unable to fulfill the last part of Grant’s plan: to reinforce Union general David Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley.
SUMMARY
Staunton, Virginia, the seat of Augusta County, was a key target in two major campaigns during the American Civil War (1861–1865), and remained strategically important throughout the entire war. With a population of about 4,000 in 1860, Staunton was situated at a vital transportation crossroads in the Shenandoah Valley, and the Confederacy sought to utilize and protect its infrastructure and wealth from the recurrent threat of destruction by Union forces. Various Confederate leaders, including the generals Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson and Richard S. Ewell, used the town as their headquarters, and it served almost continuously as an army depot, quartermaster and commissary post, and training camp. Union troops targeted Staunton for more than two years before they were able to break the Confederates’ protective hold and lay waste to much of the town and miles of nearby railroad track.