Battle of Yellow Tavern

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Had Sheridan actually been moving on Richmond, he could have passed Stuart’s positions without making a serious fight of it. Stuart then could have linked up with Gordon and fallen on the rear of the Federal column, trapping it against Richmond’s defenses. But Richmond had never been Sheridan’s objective–Stuart was. At about 11 a.m., Colonel Alfred Gibbs’ reserve brigade of Merritt’s lst Division turned south off Mountain Road, made contact with Lomax’s forces and immediately began probing his line. Behind Gibbs’ unit came Colonel Thomas Devin’s brigade, which rode farther south, seeking the Confederates’ left flank. One of Devin’s regiments, the 6th New York, got on the Brooks Turnpike, engaged a small Confederate force and chased it three miles south to the outskirts of Richmond. Another, the 17th Pennsylvania, found the left flank of Stuart’s line and assaulted it, while the 5th and 6th Michigan regiments of Custer’s brigade attacked the 15th Virginia in the Rebel center.

Defending the Confederate left was Colonel Henry Clay Pate’s 5th Virginia Cavalry. Pate had first met Stuart in Kansas in 1856, when Stuart had been in a U.S. Army force that rescued Pate from captivity in the hands of an armed Free-State faction led by John Brown. Later, Stuart had taken sides with Brig. Gen. Thomas Rosser during a feud with Pate that resulted in Pate being court-martialed. Now, Stuart rode up and exhorted him to hold his position at all costs. I will do it, Pate said firmly and extended his hand, which Stuart shook warmly. As promised, the dismounted troopers of the 5th Virginia drove back the Union assault. By that time, however, Lomax’s forces had been pushed back, and Stuart’s entire line lay roughly north to south alongside Telegraph Road. Meanwhile, Henry McClellan rode back from Richmond, only to see his way barred by Union flankers. He took a cross-country detour and finally reached Stuart during a lull in the fighting at 2 p.m. His news was encouraging. Bragg could muster 4,000 troops, counting convalescents pressed into service, to defend Richmond. In addition, he had ordered General P.G.T. Beauregard, at that time holding off a Union offensive up the James River east of Richmond, to detach three brigades to assist against the new threat from the north.

Stuart, sanguine as ever now that battle had been joined, spent an hour reviewing the situation with McClellan and Venable. He dispatched a messenger to Bragg, requesting that he march some of his forces to strike Sheridan from the south while Stuart’s force hung on the Federals’ flank. With Gordon’s brigade closing in from the north, Stuart remarked, I cannot see how they can escape.

Meanwhile, Sheridan was making plans, too, and they had nothing at all to do with escape. First, he shifted Custer’s brigade to the right of the Union line, with Colonel George H. Chapman’s brigade of Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson’s 3rd Division to Custer’s left. Reacting to the threat, dismounted Confederate troopers and the Baltimore Light Artillery began to open fire on Custer’s men. Custer responded in turn by ordering his 5th and 6th Michigan regiments to dismount and drive the Rebels back. Unfortunately, the overeager colonel of the 5th Michigan led his men forward before waiting for the 6th. They had advanced 100 yards when they suddenly came under a murderous crossfire from the woods to their left and rear. Custer rode up and ordered the troops to lie down, although he himself remained in the saddle until the 6th Michigan arrived. After placing the 6th to the left of the bloodied 5th, Custer then led both regiments until they had driven the Confederates back to their main line on the ridge. When the Michiganders reached the edge of the woods, Custer ordered them to stand fast while he reconnoitered.

Custer observed that his two reserve regiments, the 1st and 7th Michigan, were being raked by Griffin’s artillery, which was well screened by trees on its hilltop position. Custer later reported that from a personal examination of the ground I discovered that a successful charge might be made upon the battery of the enemy by keeping well to the right. Custer went to Merritt and told him, I am going to charge that battery, to which Merritt, knowing of Custer’s eye for terrain, replied: Go in, General. I wilt give you all the support in my power. Sheridan soon joined Merritt and, when told of Custer’s planned charge, exclaimed, Bully for Custer! I’ll wait and see it. Custer chose the Wolverines of his 1st Michigan for the charge and also drew the 1st Vermont Cavalry, a unit that had been part of an earlier command of his, from Chapman’s brigade. Just before 4 p.m., the 5th and 6th Michigan resumed their advance on foot in hopes of drawing Confederate attention. While the Federal horse artillery pounded the enemy battery, Custer placed himself at the head of the 1st Michigan and led it up the hill at a walk while the brigade band played Yankee Doodle. When the Federal column emerged from the cover of trees at a trot, Griffin’s guns turned to face it and commenced firing with ball and canister. Five times Custer’s men paused to remove fences from their route; then they filed, three troopers at a time, across an old bridge over a deep ditch.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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