Beaver Dam Station

Beaver Dam Station. . , Hanover County, Virginia , In the darkness of predawn on May 9, forty miles from Richmond, a section of Sheridan's cavalry under Custer's command raided the railroad station at Beaver Dam, in Hanover County. The station was being used as a military supply depot for General Robert E. Lee's army. Union troops cut telegraph lines and freed 300 Union prisoners of war, as they set fire to the train station. The raid destroyed a vital network of railroad tracks and depot buildings housing tons of food rations and medical supplies. Sheridan wrote of the raid at the station: "The possession of Beaver Dam gave us an important point as it opened a way toward Richmond. It also enabled us to prepare for fighting the enemy, who, I felt sure, would endeavor to interpose between my column and Richmond." General Sheridan's foray south was beginning to have all the earmarks of a triumphal march to Richmond., Stuart and his men arrived from Spotsylvania too late to intercept the Union forces at Beaver Dam, with the smoldering ruins of the railroad station giving evidence to the success of the Union raid., Union Advance to Richmond, , , The Mountain Road Corridor , As Sheridan's Union troops moved south from Beaverdam along Mountain Road; the effect of thousands of soldiers on horseback is described by an officer in Custer's brigade. He observed, "Clouds of dust ... fill eyes, nose, and air passages, [and] give external surfaces a uniform, dirty gray color, and form such an impenetrable veil that for many minutes together, you cannot see even your hand before you.", The dust plume gave away the Union cavalry's position and hinted at their intentions. Stuart's scouts were able to track the Union column almost from the hour it set out., News of the advancement of Union forces moving toward Richmond caused terror for the local population. Enemy soldiers were reported being seen in every direction. Sarah Alexander Lawton, sister of Brig. General Edward Porter Alexander, wrote to her sister of the fear the approaching troops were causing, and how many Richmond ladies sat up all night, ready to flee, "dressed in all their clothes with their jewelry on.", An anxious Governor William "Extra Billy" Smith issued an appeal to Richmonders: "The enemy are undoubtedly approaching the city and may be expected at any hour, with a view to its capture, its pillage and its destruction. All persons, therefore, able to wield musket, will immediately assemble upon the public square." The only men left in the city were underage boys and overage men, the exempt and the handicapped, but they rallied to the call.