On May 12, 1864, a sharp engagement between Union and Confederate cavalry took place at the Chickahominy River crossing at Meadow Bridge. The previous day, Gen. Philip Sheridan’s Union troopers had defeated Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry near Yellow Tavern, where Stuart was mortally wounded. That evening, under darkness and a heavy thunderstorm, Sheridan moved south through Richmond’s outer defenses and into a dangerous trap. The next morning, with the manned trenches of Richmond’s intermediate defenses ahead, the swollen Chickahominy to his left, and Confederate cavalry threatening his rear, he chose to force a crossing at Meadow Bridge, where the Virginia Central Railroad crossed the river. Although Confederates had dismantled the road bridge, the railroad crossing remained intact, and Gen. George Custer was tasked with seizing it. Through the morning and early afternoon, as Southern cavalry pressed from behind and government clerks and workers turned soldiers sallied out from the city’s fortifications, Custer fought to clear the north bank of stubborn Confederate troopers. After his men gained a foothold on the Confederate side, they pinned the Southerners down while Union pioneers repaired the road bridge and planked the railroad span. By 4 p.m., the bridge was open and Union soldiers crossed the swollen stream. Sweeping resistance aside, Sheridan pulled his men out of the trap and turned toward Mechanicsville. Two days later, he led his cavalry to the safety of the James River, ending a raid on Richmond that had begun five days earlier. During the fighting, Confederate Gen. James B. Gordon was mortally wounded while leading North Carolinians in an attack on Sheridan’s rear, the second such blow to Southern cavalry high command in as many days. With Confederates advancing on two sides and the river at his back, Sheridan fought his way across the Chickahominy and abandoned any further designs on Richmond.
