Union Raid on Coalfield Station

Chesterfield County · dedicated 1995 · 13501 Midlothian Turnpike, Midlothian

On the first day of Union Brig. Gen. August V. Kautz's second raid (12-17 May 1864) on Confederate railroads around Richmond, 3,000 cavalrymen rode northwest from Bermuda Hundred and passed Chesterfield Court House at 1:00 P.M. Arriving about midnight at Midlothian's Coalfield Station on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, a quarter-mile north, they cut telegraph lines and burned the depot, woodsheds, and railroad cars. They destroyed the tracks using tools from nearby coal mines. Maj. Samuel P. Wetherill, 11th Pa. Cav., intervened to rescind the orders to set the coal mines afire.

David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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