General Wade Hampton's Great Beefsteak Raid -- September 16-17, 1864

The Great Beefsteak Raid, September 16, 1864. Artwork by Mort Kunstler.

The following true story is perhaps one of my favorite events of the War Between the States.

In September of 1864 as summer was beginning to end, Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s Union Army of the Potomac was entering the third month of their siege of the city of Petersburg, Virginia against the entrenched forces of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia.

Since the start of the Overland Campaign in May of that year, the Army of the Potomac now under Grant's command, relentlessly pounded Lee's Confederate Army; leap-frogging south and westward from the Wilderness and Spotsylvania Court House, to Cold Harbor and now Petersburg, the last obstacle between the Union army and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia.

Both sides were settling in for a long and grueling siege that would ultimately last close to nine months. Grant's invading Yankee army was cutting off important rail supply lines and slowly tightening the noose around Lee's besieged army and the Confederate capitol.

South of Petersburg, away from the main battle lines, the country was the setting for brutal guerrilla warfare. Confederate cavalry forces ranged deep behind the lines, regularly raiding isolated Union outposts, and scouts and spies from both sides roamed behind the lines gathering information on their opponents, looking for weaknesses.

One of those scouts was a sergeant in the Confederate cavalry named George David Shadburne.

Born in 1842 in Brenham, Texas, Shadburn was the son of a hotel keeper from the State of Kentucky. At 18 years of age, Shadburne enlisted in Company A of the Jefferson Davis Legion Cavalry as a private on Thursday, December 19, 1861, near Centreville, Virginia. The Legion served gallantly in the eastern theater under the command of then Colonel Wade Hampton  and took part in Confederate General J.E.B. Stuart's ride around the Union army in June of 1862. In the summer of 1863, the Legion fought at Brandy Station, Gettysburg, and Bristoe Station during Lee's failed second invasion of Pennsylvania.

Wartime photograph of Sergeant George D.
Shadburne of General Wade Hampton's
Iron Scouts.
Photo courtesy of National Archives.

By late 1863 Shadburne rose to the rank of sergeant because of his fighting passion and was assigned to Hampton's 2nd South Confederate Cavalry. When now Major General Wade Hampton took command of the Army of Northern Virginia's cavalry corps after the death of Stuart at The Battle of Yellow Tavern in May of 1864, he made Shadburne a chief of his "Iron Scouts" that summer.

The Iron Scouts were a select group of cavalry troopers from the four companies of Hampton's battalion, which included members of the 1st and 2nd SC Cavalry, the 1st NC Cavalry, and the Prince William Virginia Cavalry. Serving from late 1862 to the war's end, Wade Hampton's Iron Scouts were a key component of the comprehensive intelligence network designed by Generals Lee, J.E.B. Stuart, and Wade Hampton. The Scouts were stationed behind enemy lines on a permanent basis. Sometimes wearing Yankee uniform coats, they skillfully eluded capture while they killed and captured Union pickets and couriers, interfered with supply lines, destroyed telegraph lines, and provided critical military intelligence to their generals.

Just before daybreak on the morning of Tuesday, August 30th, Sergeant Shadburne was on patrol behind the Union lines along with another Iron Scout, Private John Elliott, along the Blackwater River just two miles from Grant's headquarters at City Point, Virginia when they came across a large herd of cattle grazing on the James River near Coggin’s Point. The herd was being guarded by a contingent of Union guards at Beechwood Farm, a former home of secessionist Edmund Ruffin.

Later that evening under the cover of darkness they returned with two more Iron Scouts; Privates Shakespeare Harris and Rufus Merchant. The four men easily passed through the Union pickets -- something the Scouts were quite good at by this point -- and spent the night counting the number of cattle.

On Sunday, September 5th, Shadburne submitted a thorough report of the Union defenses east of Petersburg near Coggin's Point. In addition to noting the positions and strength of the Union forces, Shadburne also mentioned that the corral containing the 3,000 head of cattle intended for consumption by Grant's army was guarded by only 120 men and about 30 unarmed civilians.

In actuality the Union force was larger: 250 men of the 1st District of Columbia Cavalry Regiment and a detachment of about 150 men from the 13th Pennsylvania Cavalry. Along with the civilian cattlemen who handled the herd, the force still came to slightly less than 500 men overall.

Knowing that this beef would soon be issued to Northern soldiers, General Hampton put forth a plan to do a bit of cattle rustling to his superior General Robert E. Lee on Wednesday, September 8th.

Hampton's plan for the raid involved the cavalry division of Major General W.H. Fitzhugh "Rooney" Lee, the brigades of Brigadier General's Thomas L. "Tex" Rosser and James Dearing, and about 100 men from Brigadier General's Pierce M. B. Young and John Dunovant's brigades, as well as a dozen members of his own Iron Scouts to act as guides and several "certified Texas cattle thieves."

Because they did not have a complete investment of the Petersburg lines, the Union rear areas were vulnerable to attack. At that time most of the Union cavalry divisions under Major General Philip Sheridan were in the Shenandoah Valley. This left the entire Federal rear picketed by the single under-strength cavalry division of about 700 men under Brigadier General August V. Kautz.

Hampton choose September 15th for the raid because Grant himself was known to be in the Valley in conference with Sheridan at the time. The next day, Thursday, September 9th, General Lee gave Hampton his approval for the raid.

Leaving their camps on the late evening of Wednesday, September 14th Hampton's force of about 3,000 Southern cavalrymen and four artillery pieces began a ride of more than 100 miles around the Union Lines.

Major General Wade Hampton III, commander in
chief of the Army of Northern Virginia Cavalry Corps
1864-65.
Photograph courtesy of the Library of Congress.

He led his cavalry force to the south of Petersburg and the Union trenches, in order to eventually turn north behind Union lines. Hampton was able to penetrate the Federal rear by a roundabout route, passing through Dinwiddie Court House and Stony Creek Station. He chose to cross where the Cook's Bridge over the Blackwater River once stood, knowing that an attack from there would be unexpected. He had some engineers reconstruct the bridge.

Successfully reaching their destination two days later, at about 5 A.M. on the dawn on Friday, September 16th, Hampton's force attacked the Union position with a three-prong strike, with the center directed toward the cattle. Rooney Lee's division was used to screen off the Rebel left, as that was the flank closest to the Union lines around Petersburg, while Generals Rosser and Dearing's men attacked and overwhelmed the Union camp and successfully captured the herd along with 11 wagons and 304 prisoners after a brief fight.

During the fight, an attempt was made by the Union defenders to scatter the herd was thwarted by the fact that the Confederates attacked from all sides, thus hemming in the cattle. To the south and at Sycamore Church, another contingent of Southern cavalry skirmished with a Federal outpost, capturing most of the command.

Capturing the beef was only the first step; now they had to get back to the Confederate lines with them. By 8:00 A.M., less than three hours after the camp was attacked, Hampton had his force back on the road. Rosser and Dearing were sent ahead to secure the Jerusalem Plank Road and prevent any Federal force from descending along that avenue with Lee's division bringing up the rear with the cattle using a large number of shepherd dogs brought along to help with the herding.

By 10:00 A.M. the Confederates and their newly acquired cattle were back at Cook's Bridge on the Blackwater. After re-crossing the Blackwater Swamp, Hampton’s horsemen sent the captured herd on a more southerly route across the Jerusalem Plank Road at Hawkinsville, leading towards Freeman’s Ford on the Nottoway River.

Meanwhile the Union reaction to these events was very limited.

The 2nd Cavalry Division, under Brigadier General Henry E. Davies, and Kautz, were hastily sent out after the Rebels, but they were only able to muster some 2,800 men between them. At about 2:00 P.M. Davies and his 1,200 Yankees came up against Rosser's force along the Jerusalem Plank Road. He was able to drive Rosser back about three miles before he came upon a prepared position at Belches Mill, held in force by Dearing and the four artillery pieces. Without Kautz's support, Davies did not feel strong enough to engage the Confederates and simply skirmished with them until about 8:00 P.M. 

Meanwhile Hampton was getting the cattle across the Nottoway River, moving about two miles, or so, south of Rosser's position.

Davies eventually decided to move by his right flank to try and bypass Rosser's position and intercept the retreating column, but Hampton anticipated this and during the night moved to Wilkinson's Bridge on Rowanty Creek, where he could block any Federal advance.

After driving in some of Hampton's pickets early on the morning of Saturday, September 17th, Davies learned that the cattle had been taken across the Nottoway the previous day and were therefore beyond his reach. Davies broke off the pursuit and fell back towards the Union lines at Petersburg that evening. Kautz had followed the line of Hampton's retirement but, with his undersized force, had never felt strong enough to vigorously engage the Confederate rear-guard, and so accomplished little except to scoop up some 18 head of cattle that had straggled from the captured herd.

Map showing the route taken by General Hampton's Confederate Cavalry during the Great Beefsteak Raid.
Map courtesy of the Petersburg National Battlefield NPS.

By 9 A.M. on the morning of September 17th, Hampton was back behind Confederate lines with the fresh beef for the Army of Northern Virginia's commissary. His men had captured more than 300 Union prisoners and approximately 2,486 steers (roughly about 2 million pounds of beef) for Lee's hungry troops in the Petersburg trenches.

In his after-action report to Lee, Hampton wrote: "the command returned to their old quarters after an absence of three days, during which they had marched upward of 100 miles, defeating the enemy in two fights, and bringing from his lines in safety a large amount of captured property, together with 304 prisoners. Of the 2,486 cattle captured 2,468 have been brought in, and I hope [to] get the few remaining ones. Three guidons were taken and eleven wagons brought in safely, several others having been destroyed. Three camps of the enemy were burned, after securing from them some very valuable stores, including quite a number of blankets. My loss was 10 killed, 47 wounded, and 4 missing."

It was one of the most brilliant cavalry raids of the war.

Of the raid, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln remarked with some grudging admiration, "It was the slickest piece of cattle rustling I ever heard of."

During a rather strained dinner missing a juicy beef steak, Grant was allegedly asked by one of his officers, "General, how long will it take to starve out Lee and take Richmond?" Grant removed the cigar from his mouth, studied the ash intently for a minute then quietly replied, "Forever, if you keep feeding Lee’s army with beef."

Despite the daring raid's success, its strategic impact was not as great as the large number of cattle taken might seem to indicate. For whereas the Union had the resources to replace its lost cattle, the Confederates lacked hay or grain to spare for feed. They were therefore forced to slaughter the cattle almost as soon as they had secured them. The ensuing "feast" on the Confederate side might be better described as a rush to consume the beef before it spoiled, largely because salt for preserving meat was scarce in the Confederacy.

For days afterwards, the Southerners would taunt the Yankee sentries, thanking them for all the food and inviting them over for dinner. There was so much beef available that Confederate sentries would sometimes offer it in unauthorized trades with Union sentries for certain luxury items of which the Federal soldiers had a plentiful supply, but the Confederates lacked. After the beef was eaten or spoiled, the Confederates reverted to their previous, dire food situation.

All the same at the cost of just over 60 casualties all told, Hampton had captured hundreds of Yankee troopers, embarrassed the Federal high command, and most importantly, had secured 2,468 cattle for the nearly starving Confederates in the trenches of Petersburg. It was one of the last great hurrahs for the proud Army of Northern Virginia even as Grant was already slowly tightening the noose around Petersburg and Richmond.


Sources for this article include the following:

Virginia Civil War Trails, Glory at a Gallop: Tales of the Confederate Cavalry by William Riley Brooksher and David K. Snider. Pelican Publishing, 2002. ISBN: 9781589800588.
Wade Hampton III by Robert Ackerman. University of South Carolina Press, 2007. ISBN-10: ‎ 1570036675.
Gentleman and Soldier: A Biography of Wade Hampton III by Edward G. Longacre.‎ Rutledge Hill Press, 2003. ISBN-10: 1558539646. 
Wade Hampton's Iron Scouts: Confederate Special Forces by D. Michael Thomas. The History Press, Charleston, SC, 2018. ISBN: 9781467139380.