During the Civil War, Confederate fortifications at Brook Hill were forcibly occupied three times by Union cavalry. The first raid, during the night of May 4, 1863, by General Stoneman’s troops, was of relatively little consequence. On March 1, 1864, General Judson Kilpatrick with 3,500 cavalrymen seized the fort and shelled the inner defense line from there in preparation for an assault upon Richmond that failed. Finally, on May 11, 1864, 12,000 Federals commanded by General Philip Sheridan, after overpowering General J.E.B. Stuart at the Battle of Yellow Tavern two miles to the north, advanced upon the works. Confederates fiercely contested every inch of ground before being overwhelmed, and Sheridan, fearing entrapment, retired to the east the next day.
