Netherland Tavern, built about 1822 and later demolished in the 1950s, stood fifty yards east and served travelers on the Fredericksburg Stage Road and the Louisa Court House Road, later also serving rail passengers after the Virginia Central Railroad began operating in the 1850s. During the Civil War, as the conflict entered its final year, it became a center of military activity. In June 1864, Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Gen. Philip H. Sheridan to lead two cavalry divisions west from Cold Harbor in Hanover County, destroy Virginia Central Railroad track, join Gen. David Hunter's infantry at Charlottesville, and return with him to the main army. After Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee learned on June 7 that Sheridan had departed, he sent the divisions of Gens. Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee in pursuit. Hampton, in command of the expedition, made his headquarters at the tavern on the evening of June 10 and spent the night sleeping on a carpenter's bench outside the front door. That same night Sheridan, north of there, reached Clayton's Store, present-day Oakland, and only a few miles separated the two forces. At dawn on June 11, Hampton was awakened by two subordinates, Gens. Matthew C. Butler and Thomas L. Rosser, and when Rosser asked his plans, Hampton replied, "I propose to fight."