In May 1862, Union Gen. George B. McClellan led the Army of the Potomac up the Peninsula to the gates of Richmond. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee assumed command of the Army of Northern Virginia in June and began planning a counterattack. On June 12, Gen. J.E.B. Stuart led 1,200 cavalrymen on a daring 3-day reconnaissance and discovered that the Union right was unsecured. Stuart’s ride around McClellan gave Lee the vital information he needed to launch the offensive known as the Seven Days’ Battles on June 26. On June 13, 1862, after running clashes with Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart’s cavalrymen between Haw’s Shop and Linney’s Corner, the 5th U.S. Cavalry retreated to Old Church, where it had camped. Stuart was close on its heels. Confederate Col. Fitzhugh Lee, who had served in the regiment before the war, commanded the 1st Virginia Cavalry. When he learned that his former unit was there, he asked Stuart for the privilege of leading the attack. Lee quickly drove off the 5th and captured the wrecked camp with its abundant supplies and a few stragglers. Lee joked with the prisoners, many of whom recognized their former comrade. As Stuart and the rest of the column arrived at Old Church, residents emerged from their houses with food and drink for the grateful troopers. Stuart decided to continue east rather than retrace his steps back toward Hanover Court House, assuming that Federal reinforcements probably blocked that route. Just seven miles ahead was Tunstall’s Station astride Union Gen. George B. McClellan’s supply line to White House Landing. Behind Stuart, his father-in-law, Union cavalry commander Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, was left literally in the dust as his forces pursued the Confederates.
