On Dec. 3, 1864, Kilpatrick's cavalry division, supported by Baird's division of the 14th Corps on the extreme left of General Sherman's army, reached the Augusta and Savannah Railroad and encamped with Baird at Thomas' Station and Kilpatrick a mile north, both astride the rail and wagon roads, while details from both divisions began destroying the railroad. The main body of the 14th Corps, with the artillery and trains, camped at Lumpkin´s Station, four miles south. That night, Wheeler's cavalry attacked the work details and shelled the camps, but after sharp skirmishing the attackers were repulsed by the 92nd Illinois Mounted Infantry without delaying the work of destruction. The next morning, supported by two of Baird's infantry brigades, Kilpatrick moved north to destroy the bridges over Brier Creek north and east of Waynesboro. Finding Wheeler lightly entrenched south of the town, Kilpatrick attacked and, after hard fighting, forced him to retire beyond Brier Creek. Baird´s third brigade remained at Thomas' Station to complete the destruction of three miles of track and then, with the division trains, marched to Alexander en route to Jacksonboro. The detached brigades turned southeast from Waynesboro that afternoon and marched to Alexander, followed later by Kilpatrick after he had burned the bridges over Brier Creek.