Stuart's Ride

Stuart's Ride. Passing through the Line. The fortifications here was part of the outer defensive line begun during the Peninsula Campaugn to protect the Confederate capital of Richmond. At 5 A.M. on June 12, 1862, Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart and 1,200 cavalrymen, including several who knew the local roads, left their camps on the Mordecai and Young farms just behind you and passed through the line here. The newly appointed Confederate commander, Gen. Robert E. Lee, had ordered Stuart's cavalry to probe the Federal army for weaknesses and to locate the positions of the Union flanks. Riding north on the Brook Turnpike (to your right) the column passed through the outer defenses at this point to begin what became Stuart's famed ride that encircled Union Gen. George B. McClellan's army. It gave Lee the vital information he needed to launch the offensive known as the Seven Days' Battles on June 26., On June 3, 1862, Lee ordered Confederate engineer Maj. Walter H. Stevens to identify positions for Richmond's fortifications. The next day, Lee ordered division commanders to designate 300, man "working parties" for the task. Confederate soldiers quickly constructed simple trenches and rifle pits here, above swampy Brook Run, a natural defensive position. Soon after, an artillery battery added gun emplacements like this one. By July 1863, other Confederate soldiers built stronger earthworks linking the batteries. The works were largely unoccupied in March 1864, when Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick's cavalrymen captured a few pickets in rifle pits near here., (sidebar) , During the Civil War, Confederate authorities drafted enslaved men to construct, maintain, link, and strengthen fortifications. Typically, Confederate soldiers performed the work when assigned to hold certain positions. Available records suggest that they constructed the first works built here, as well as the artillery positions, but it is probable that unrecorded enslaved laborers strengthened and joined the works that became the miles-long Outer Line. Later, as the opportunity presented itself, many thousands of enslaved workers and their families escaped to Union Vines, virtually emptying the Confederate labor pool., (captions) , Stuart's Ride Route , Richmond defenses, June 1862 All images courtesy Library of Congress , Soldiers constructing earthworks, New York Illustrated News, June 22, 1861