In June 1864, to deny General Robert E. Lee the 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. Wylliesburgh was the first place the raiders stopped to rest after their repulse at Staunton River Bridge on June 25. Each brigade paused here for about two hours to make coffee and reorganize before continuing east toward the safety of the Union lines at Petersburg. The expedition had fulfilled Grant’s orders to destroy as much track as possible until the Confederates massed enough force to attack effectively. From this point, the Wilson-Kautz raiders were in a race to safety with Confederate cavalry in hot pursuit, moving through forests and small farms, carrying about two hundred wounded in ambulances and country carriages, and resuming their march at midnight after exhausting work in intense heat.