The Dumfries Raid
In the midst of the overgrown suburbia which has become Northern Virginia,1 one can still find a road which used to cross the old Orange and Alexandria Railroad.
A highway marker reads:
BURKE STATION |
Unfortunately, the text of the original telegram is lost. It was, however, a bold gesture typical of General J.E.B. Stuart.
Virtually all supplies and munitions for the Union army were carried by water via Aquia Creek; however, cavalry reinforcements, sutlers' wagons and occasional trains used the Telegraph Road. This old colonial road was in horrible condition in 1862. (U.S. Highway 1 pursues the general course of the old road today.) The only two towns the Confederates could hope to reach were Occoquan and Dumfries. Both were known to be guarded and would, of course, be supplied with munitions and quartermaster stores. To capture these supplies would be a viable objective. Possibly Stuart could interrupt telegraph communications between Burnside and Washington as well. As on every raid with the cavalry, the hope to capture sutlers' wagons was an attraction -- even if a raid had to be conducted in heavy snow. Another reason for the raid is one often overlooked: it is not good for cavalry to remain inactive for long.
On December 10, 1862 and once again on December 17th, General Wade Hampton and his South Carolinians, with 500 man, accomplished with great success two of these raids. The finest feat of the latter raid was the capture of 41 pickets on eight miles of road without sounding an alarm. Hampton also reported that the stores in Dumfries were lightly guarded. This information led Stuart to decide to conduct a larger raid himself, with a greater number of men.
Following its recent victory at Fredericksburg, Lee's army remained south of the Rappahannock. The infantry went into winter quarters. General Ambrose E. Burnside's Army of the Potomac was dispersed as follows: The VI Corps, under Major General John Sedgwick, with 149,451 men present for duty, was north of the river opposite Fredericksburg; Brigadier General Julius Stahel's XI Corps of 19,910 men were located near Stafford Court House; and Major General Henry W. Slocum's XXII Corps, with 15,916 men were at Fairfax Court House. Cooperating with Stahel and Slocum, Major General Samuel P. Heintzleman had about 66,683 men protecting Washington -- Brigadier General Silas Casey's division had detachments at Fairfax and Union Mills, while Brigadier General John J. Abercrombie' s division was concentrated at Falls Church. Cavalry outposts on the Occoquan River stretched fran the town of Occoquan to Wolf Run Shoals. The southern portion of the line was defended by Colonel R. Butler Price's cavalry brigade, the central part being commanded by the soldier-of-fortune, Sir Percy Wyndham.
As Stuart was charged with covering the flanks of Lee's army and had sent Jones' men on detached duty in the Shenandoah Valley, this limited his force. Also, the continued poor condition of horses led him to handpick only 1800 men, plus four guns of the Stuart Horse Artillery. The command was divided into three brigades commanded by General Fitzhugh Lee, General W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee, and General Wade Hampton. Major John Pelham commanded the horse artillery.
On December 24th the two Lees left their camps near Chancellorsville. Stuart's camp was located on the north bank of Massaponax Creek near Hamilton's Crossing. He set out on Christmas day about 12 noon, briefly stopping by the French House (still standing) to see Mrs. Stuart. The colmnn then picked up the Ely's Ford Road and encamped just a few miles beyond the ford. They crossed the Rappahannock River at Kelly's Ford and camped the night of December 26th at the small hamlet of Bristersburg.
On December 27th, Stuart planned to take possession of the Telegraph Road and broke his command up into three colmnns: Fitz Lee was to move east along the banks of Chopowamsic Creek to strike the road south of Dumfries, then to move northward on the town; Rooney Lee was to advance eastward, via the Forest Road, toward Dumfries; and Wade Hampton was to strike from the direction of the town of Occoquan. The two Lees were to unite their column and capture the supplies at Dumfries, and then join Hampton at Occoquan. Stuart accompanied Rooney Lee's colmnn on the march.
Rooney Lee reached Wheat's Mill on Quantico Creek. Here a squadron of the 9th Virginia Cavalry captured twelve Union pickets. Crossing the creek, they met in the suburbs of the town two regiments of infantry and were compelled to retire. Stuart then ordered up two guns of the Stuart Horse Artillery, under Captain Mathias Winston Henry. Henry was soon engaged in an artillery duel which expended all of his ammunition. The two guns were later sent back to the Rappahannock. Stuart then ordered Lieutenant Colonel John Critcher to move on the Brentsville Road to ascertain what force was there. Critcher captured a picket of eleven men. The enemy had evacuated the town and held a position on a commanding ridge overlooking it.
Fitz Lee's brigade reached the Telegraph Road just south of Chopawamsic Creek about four miles south of Dumfries. Pushing on, they captured nine sutler wagons guarded by 22 "abolitionists." The two colmnns reunited, Colonel Tom Rosser of the 5th Virginia Cavalry and Colonel James Drake of the 1st were ordered to cross the creek while detachments from the 2nd and 3rd Virginia Cavalry, under Lieutenant Colonels James W. Watts and W.R. Carter, were sent upstream to distract the Federals and attempt to capture the town. In this brief skirmish, Captain J.W. Bullock of the 5th Virginia Cavalry, commanding the shooters, was mortally wounded.
Unfortunately for Stuart, Dumfries was not light guarded. The Union force, commanded by Colonel Charles Candy, consisted of a brigade of infantry, plus the 1st Maryland Cavalry, six companies of the 12th Illinois Cavalry, and a section of the 6th Maine Battery. Reluctantly concluding that the loss of life would not be justified, as the enemy had already withdrawn their stores (Channing Price wrote home that "the enemy had had 2 or 3 hours to move the stores, which we could see them doing...."), Stuart settled down to light skirmishing and an artillery duel engaged with the enemy by the two guns under James Breathed, and then withdrew his command to the Brentsville Road. He encamped that night in the vicinity of Coles Store (now Independent Hill).
Wade Hampton, too, had made little progress. Advancing from Coles Store, Hampton cleared the road and pushed on toward Occoquan. Colonel Matt Butler approached from the front, while Colonel W.T. Martin and Major William G. Delony proceeded by the River Road to cut off the enemy's retreat. Unfortunately, Butler did not wait and rushed into town, capturing only eight wagons and nineteen prisoners. He rejoined Hampton who, failing to find Stuart on the Telegraph Road, bivouaced near Coles Store.
Under a strong guard, the 20 wagons, 100 prisoners and about 150 horses and mules captured were sent that night toward Culpeper Court House. With the rather dismal results of the day and the poor condition of horses, Stuart determined to end his raid and accordingly ordered Fitz Lee southward. But information received from a man from Fairfax changed his mind, and Fitz Lee was recalled.
On the morning of the 28th, Stuart moved toward the Occoquan. At Greenwood Church, he detached Butler with 150 men to Bacon Race Church.2 Here Butler could flank the Federals said to be in his front.
Believing that Hampton would eventually join him, Butler advanced on the road toward Bacon Race Church. About a mile from the church he ran into Federal pickets. He chased them down the road and found himself faced with a formidable line, which proved to be General John Geary's Pennsylvanians of the XII Corps and two pieces of artillery. He attempted to escape this superior force and retreated westward along the Brentsville Road, but found to his dismay a large force in his rear. Fortunately, Stuart had provided him a guide and by a long ride of 3-4 miles through the woods and byroads he came behind Rooney Lee's brigade as they crossed the Occoquan.
Meanwhile, Stuart, in his advance from Greenwood Church, encountered some 250 men of the 17th and 2nd Pennsylvania Cavalry in the woods. Stuart captured 100, pursuing the rest of the men to Selectman's Ford. This ford was "narrow, rocky and very difficult," but Rosser, in advance with the 5th Virginia, did not hesitate to pursue. General Fitzhugh Lee wrote: "The charge across the narrow, rocky ford...by file, in spite of the enemy's dismounted sharpshooters on the other side, was one of the most admirable performances of cavalry I have ever witnessed." Pelham, to the amazement of all, drove his guns through the ford which had always been considered impassable for artillery. 3 The Confederates raided the well-supplied and unoccupied camps of the enemy. What was not carried away was burned.
With Butler rejoining his force, Stuart's command was reunited. As for the route back, the most prudent course was the bolder one. Having Hampton make a demonstration toward Accotink, Stuart moved westward. At dark he reached Burke's Station and had his telegraph operator relieve the Federal official from his duties, and sent his famous telegram. The telegraph key was kept as a souvenir and carried to Richmond by John Pelham.
Stuart then moved as close to the outer defenses of Washington as he dared, traveling the Ox Road toward Fairfax Court House. This was tempting fate, as Fairfax was very heavily guarded. The Confederates immediately ran into some gunfire. The Federals sent out a flag of truce and naively demanded to know if the column was friend or foe. Some wag called out that they would receive their answer the next morning. Lighting fires to deceive the enemy, Stuart retired via Vienna to Frying Pan. From Frying Pan (which as Dr. Freeman so aptly put it, "was neither warm nor full" ) he noved to Middleburg. Leisurely, the Confederate column reached the Rappahannock and returned to Fredericksburg on New Year's Day.
Stuart claimed, in his official report, that his raid had interrupted commnunications between the enemy; that he forced the Federals to deploy troops to guard the line from Aquia Creek to Vienna; and in moving toward Middleburg, he created the impression of another possible invasion of Maryland, which forced the Federal cavalry to move in that direction. He said in admiration of his men: "The command returned in astonishingly good condition from this long march...." Stuart may not have collected as much booty as he had hoped, and he may have exaggerated the raid's results; however, the raid was typical of Stuart: a relatively small force of handpicked men had once again went deep into enemy territory, faced twice their strength, gained intelligence, and took the long route home, escaping with relatively little loss. It could be justifiably called a success.
1 Despite the steady growth of Northern Virginia, most of this raid can still be traced on modern roads. From Fredericksburg to Independent Hill is still countryside. The Quantico Marine Base and Prince William Forest, by their existence, have saved many of the sites passed by Stuart's horsemen. It is in the area of Bacon Race Church and Greenwood Church (both churches no longer stand) that you encounter much of the congestion of Northern Virginia traffic. The town of Occoquan, however, is beautifully preserved as a colonial village and is a popular tourist site. Mac Wyckoff, of the National Park service, has written two papers, "The Dumfries Raid" and "Dumfries Raid & Mud March," which give precise directions. A good map of the area is in Volume 2, Lee's Lieutenants, by Dr. Douglas Southall Freeman p. 401.
2 This old church, a landmark of Prince William County, was rebuilt in 1870 and renamed Oak Grove Baptist Church. It stood empty after 1938. On Christmas Day, 1987 -- ironically on the 125th Anniversary of the beginning of Stuart's raid -- the old building collapsed.
3 The Occoquan River has since been dammed. In searching for Selectman's Ford, I simply took a modern topographic map, a modern city street map and zoning maps, and compared it to the map in the O.R. Atlas, Plate VIII, where Selectman's Ford is referred to as "Snyder's." I am indebted to Jennifer Young and Patrick Shaub for providing and studying the maps around the site of the ford. It is located off of Antietam Road about two miles from the town of Occoquan. By kind permission, of the property owner, I was able to see the trace of the old road leading to the ford site. "Rocky" and "steep" describe it. In 1988, Jenny and I saw the ford site from the Fairfax County side of the river. Many entrenchments lined the bank of the river, all in excellent condition. Expensive homes were built in this area scarcely six months after we had visited and photographed the site. Fortunately, the boundary of the Sandy Run Recreational Park, part of the Northern Virginia Regional Park, nay have saved some of these entrenchments from destruction.
This article first appeared in Volume 11, No. 6 of The Cannoneer.
Sources:
Douglas Southall Freeman, Lee's Lieutenants, Volume 2;
O.R., Series I, Volume XXI;
H.B. McClellan, I Rode with Jeb Stuart;
Col. John W. McDonald, retired, "Stuart's Burke Station Raid -- 26-31 December 1862," Historical Society of Fairfax County, Va., Yearbook, Volume 4, 1955, pp. 66- 71;
WPA Project, Prince William: The Story of Its people, Its Places, 1941;
E. R. Conner III, One Hundred Old Cemeteries of Prince William County, Virginia, Lake Lithograph Inc., Manassas, Va., 1981;
Fairfax Harrison, Landmarks of Old Prince William, 2nd reprint edition (original edition 1924), Gateway Press, Baltimore, 1987.)
