In June 1864, to deny General Robert E. Lee use of the South Side Railroad and the Richmond and Danville Railroad, General Ulysses S. Grant sent General James H. Wilson and General August V. Kautz south of Petersburg on a cavalry raid to destroy track and rolling stock. Their combined column reached Keysville by nightfall on June 24 from Meherrin Station, and Wilson established his headquarters nearby in the old Keysville Hotel. Federal forces burned the harness store, tracks, and related railroad support structures there. On the morning of June 25, a detachment of the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry destroyed Johnson’s Saw Mill, another private mill, and a company mill, which Colonel Robert West said were the only resources available to the enemy for obtaining timber and repairing the road. The Masonic building and a smokehouse also were burned. Several large foraging parties went out from Keysville to confiscate food and seize horses for replacement mounts, and Trooper Edward P. Tobie recalled that whatever food could be readily taken from smokehouses, spring houses, fields, gardens, stalls, or pastures was remorselessly appropriated. Trooper Wilbur F. Lunt recalled that his company was sent out on a crossroad for picket duty and made its headquarters at the house of Mr. Foster, whose wife, though born in Ohio, appeared to be a strong Confederate sympathizer.