In June 1864, to deny Gen. Robert E. Lee the use of the South Side R.R. and the Richmond and Danville R.R., Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent Gen. James H. Wilson and Gen. August V. Kautz south of Petersburg on a cavalry raid to destroy track and rolling stock. Rufus Barringer’s North Carolina brigade attacked the Federal rear guard about two miles north of here at a plantation on the hill behind you. The cavalry action began about the same time as the Federal attack on the Staunton River railroad bridge about four miles south. Trooper Henry Norton of the 8th New York Cavalry recalled that the rebels reached the rear guard about 4 p.m. and fought until dark, while General Kautz and the first brigade engaged them near the railroad bridge across the Staunton River. In a letter to her brother Joel Watkins dated August 9, 1864, Margaret Watkins wrote that firing began at Overby’s Store, that the Federals were driven over Roanoke Creek at the mill, and that Confederate soldiers soon arrived at her yard in pursuit of the enemy.