On March 1, 1864, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren and 500 Union cavalrymen approached Richmond from the west on a mission to free 13,000 Union prisoners of war held on Belle Isle and in Libby Prison. Secret orders also authorized the burning of Richmond and the assassination of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. While in Goochland, they burned this mill and other buildings. Soon after, they were forced to retreat, and Dahlgren was killed in an ambush in King and Queen County.