Michaela Hipps U.S. 121 December 3, 2014

In June of 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant of the Union army and General Robert E. Lee had fought many battles against each other, and Grant was closing in on Lee’s army. Lee’s victory against Grant’s army in Petersburg depended upon the supplies from the west and the south that he got from the Southside and Richmond-Danville railroads. Grant knew that if he was able to destroy the supply lines, then he would be able to defeat Lee’s Army.

General U. S. GrantGeneral Robert E. Lee

Grant had sent General James H. Wilson on a cavalry raid from Petersburg to Danville with the sole purpose of destroying the Southside and Richmond-Danville Railroads. Wilson’s cavalry was made up of his own Third Division from the army of Potomac’s Cavalry and Brigadier General August V. Kautz’s division from the Army of the James. They were destroying telegraph lines, station houses, trains, and sixty miles of track during the first three days of the raid.

Captain Benjamin J. Farinholt was stationed at Staunton River Bridge with the duty of protecting the bridge. On June 23 rd, 1864, at approximately 10p.m., Captain Farinholt had received a dispatch from General Robert E. Lee. The dispatch warned Farinholt of the approaching Union forces and that he needed to make every effort to defend the bridge.

Gen. James H. WilsonGeneral August Kautz

Captain Farinholt had every intention of obeying the General’s orders however, Farinholt was badly outnumbered and there were no reinforcement Confederate regulars coming to help him. Farinholt sent out courtiers to the surrounding counties of Halifax, Mecklenburg, and Charlotte in order to rally up male citizens to defend their home land. Of those called from Halifax county, Colonel Coleman had answered the call. Although the Colonel was recovering from a severe head wound, he was able to rally up men and boys alike in Halifax.

On the morning of June 25, 1864, Captain Farinholt had reported that he had received Confederate reinforcements of 150 men, and he had 492 local residents that were not experienced in live-action combat. Along with the men that he already had stationed at Staunton River Bridge, he had a grand total of 938 men. Although this number is very small, the fact that Captain Farinholt was able to get quite a significant number of citizens to help him fight is quite astonishing.

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Although Captain Farinholt did not have an incredible amount of men to defeat the Union force, he was able to use a very wise military tactic to make it seem that he was getting many more troops than what he actually was. The train that was transporting the Confederate regulars from Danville to Captain Farinholt was used as a deception feature. Farinholt had the train continue to run back and forth all night prior to the day of the battle in order to give the illusion that he had a large number of troops coming in to defend the Staunton River Bridge.

A key example of how Farinholt’s deception plan worked was when General Wilson was using a woman’s plantation for his Union headquarters and field hospital during the battle, it is said that she had told the General that there were approximately 10,000 Confederate troops ready to defend the Staunton Bridge. General Wilson was astonished at this new information because he thought that he could just destroy the bridge with little effort involved whatsoever.

At about 3:45p.m., Farinholt reported that he had seen the Union army and he was the first one to take aim and fire. The Union army then fired heavily where Captain Farinholt had his men stationed. Some of the younger boys were crying, and on top of that complication, some of the Confederate cannons were back-firing and hurting their own troops rather than the enemy’s. However the Confederates pulled through and were ready to attack.

General Wilson had sent Kautz’s men of 1,500 in a group of two brigades in order to destroy the bridge and get past the Confederates. Kautz and his men had used a type of drainage ditch for protection against the Confederate fire. When the time was right, Kautz’s men charged, but to their surprise, they were met with heavy Confederate fire from soldiers that were out of Union view. Kautz ordered his men to retreat back to the drainage ditch. Kautz would try this two more times meeting the same results as before.

General Kautz wanted to try to attack the Confederates for the fourth and final time, and so as he was about to go for the final attack, General W.H.F. Lee, a relative to Robert E. Lee, had struck the rear guard of the Union. Kautz realized that the bridge was not going to be taken that day, so he ordered his men to retreat. They retreated all the way to Ream’s Station being pursued by W.H.F. Lee. At Ream’s Station, Wilson and Kautz burned their supplies, spiked his cannons, and fled to a swamp in order to not be taken by Confederate forces. This marked the end of the battle and Wilson’s Raid.

As with any war, there are casualties, Fariholt estimated the Union losses to be around , however General Kautz estimated the loss to be around 60 men and 30 wounded. The Confederate losses were of 10 killed and 42 wounded.

Although the fact the Confederates were highly outnumbered, they managed to break through and persevere with what they had. If Captain Farinholt had not been able to defeat the Union army, General Robert E. Lee would not have been able to get supplies to his troops, which would have resulted with General Lee’s army not being able to carry on during the war, and the ultimate defeat of the Confederate forces.

Staunton River State Park Battlefield Site Museum; Cullen, Virginia; accessed on 23 November 2014 Captain Grey Eanes, Wilson-Kautz Raid Battle for Staunton Rover Bridge (Lynchburg: H.E. Howard, Inc., 1999), page 1 “The Battle of Staunton River Bridge,” available from ml; accessed 13 November 2014