Major General William Tecumseh Sherman had made a swift and steady advance through Georgia and South Carolina, and by late February 1865, his army was approaching Charlotte, North Carolina. This was a planned deception, however, to draw Confederate forces away from his real objective, Goldsboro, where two fresh corps of Union troops were waiting to link up with him.

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Sherman’s actions convinced General P.G.T. Beauregard, commander of all Confederate forces in the Carolinas, that the Federals planned to attack Charlotte. Accordingly, Beauregard concentrated his forces in that vicinity. At the same time, fearing he would be outflanked, Beauregard ordered Lt. Gen. William Hardee to evacuate Charleston and hurry to Charlotte. When the Federals halted their northward movement and started to swing east toward Cheraw, S.C., and Fayetteville, N.C., General Beauregard realized his error. He tried to send word to Hardee to turn east toward Fayetteville, but Hardee never received the message.

Because the situation was desperate and Beauregard was in poor health, other Confederate generals on the scene exerted great pressure on President Jefferson Davis to restore General Joseph Johnston to command. This was done, and Johnston was given the formidable job of driving Sherman out of the Carolinas. When Johnston assumed command, he finally managed to reach Hardee and ordered him to turn back through Carthage, N.C., and enter Fayetteville on the Yadkin and Carthage roads.

Union Brigadier General Hugh Judson ‘Kill Cavalry’ Kilpatrick’s 3rd Division, comprising some 6,000 cavalrymen, protected Sherman’s left flank and acted as a screen between the enemy and the advancing infantrymen. Although Sherman privately called Kilpatrick ‘a hell of a damn fool,’ he had personally requested the headstrong young general to command his cavalry in the March to the Sea, reasoning that Kilpatrick (who earned his nickname in part because of his recklessness) was ‘just that sort of man to command my cavalry on this expedition.’ On March 7 and 8, Kilpatrick’s cavalry moved from Wadesboro and passed through Rockingham. There, they fought a small engagement with some of Maj. Gen. Joseph ‘Fighting Joe’ Wheeler’s Confederate cavalry. Wheeler’s corps of 5,000 cavalrymen had ambushed Kilpatrick only weeks before at Aiken, S.C., and Kilpatrick had nearly been captured. After the latest skirmish with Kilpatrick, Wheeler’s corps advanced farther west, crossed the Peedee River and marched 12 miles north to Grassy Island Ford, where it halted.

Hardee crossed the Peedee at Cheraw with Maj. Gen. Matthew C. Butler’s cavalry, which had come up through Columbia. At Beauregard’s recommendation, Lt. Gen. Wade Hampton was placed in command of both Wheeler’s and Butler’s cavalry. Hampton sent orders to Butler to join forces with Wheeler on the east bank of the Peedee River. On the 8th, Hampton linked up with the other generals. By the afternoon of the 9th, the Confederates were moving toward Fayetteville to rendezvous with Hardee. The night before, during a heavy rainfall, Kilpatrick had crossed over the Lumber River and proceeded to Solemn Grove, a country post office that was also called Buchan’s. There, his forces collided with the rear guard of Hardee’s main force of 11,000 men, which was then entering Fayetteville.

Kilpatrick’s brief engagement with Hardee’s rear guard netted several hundred Confederate prisoners. From the prisoners, Kilpatrick learned that Hampton’s cavalry was in the area to the west, advancing east along the Yadkin Road toward Fayetteville, and that Hampton’s mission was to link up with Hardee there.

From the prisoners’ information, Kilpatrick deduced that Hampton’s force could only advance along three possible roads: Morganton Road, Chicken Road and Yadkin Road. Knowing that he had time to intercept Hampton’s force, he planned to send Colonel Smith Atkins’ 2nd Brigade to Morganton Road and Colonel Thomas Jefferson Jordan’s 1st Brigade to Chicken Road. Kilpatrick would take the Yadkin Road, along with Colonel George Eliphaz Spencer of the 1st Alabama (Union) Cavalry, commanding the 3rd Brigade, and Lt. Col. William W. Way of the 9th Michigan Cavalry, commanding the 4th Provisional Brigade of dismounted troops.

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