Dahlgren’s 1864 Raid on Richmond Generates an Ongoing Controversy

As 1864 dawned, the Confederacy found itself in dire straits.  Robert E. Lee had lost the Battle of Gettysburg the previous summer.  After Ulysses S. Grant routed the Confederates at Missionary Ridge near Chattanooga in late 1863, he received promotion to command the Army of the Potomac.  With more than 120,000 soldiers at his disposal in Fredericksburg, Virginia, Grant sat within 50 miles of the Confederate capital at Richmond menacing Lee’s depleted Army of Northern Virginia which numbered fewer than 70,000.   William Sherman assumed command of the western Union armies.  Poised to march through Georgia, he enjoyed a similar manpower advantage.  Civil War armies generally campaigned from May to November, so by February, the Confederates braced for an all-out assault by overwhelming forces on two fronts.

Union General Judson Kilpatrick conducted several  cavalry raids in Virginia in 1863 and had even more ambitious plans for 1864.  Based on reports that the Confederacy had few men to defend Richmond, he received approval from Secretary of War Edwin Stanton to raid the Confederate capital and set about planning his raid.  He recruited a young and dynamic Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, the son of prominent Admiral John Dahlgren.  Kilpatrick planned to feint west towards Charlottesville and then march south on Richmond to draw the few defenders north of the city.  Dahlgren and 500 cavalrymen would approach Richmond from the west and cross the James River and attack from the southside.  Kilpatrick and Dahlgren would link up and free 13,000 Union prisoners held in Richmond.

Kilpatrick had earned the nickname “Kill Cavalry” for his recklessness.  The ambitious scheme fit his reputation.  Hastily drawn up, the plan left many details unaddressed.  Kilpatrick failed to create concrete objectives beyond freeing the prisoners.  Further, he made no provision for feeding, arming and leading the liberated prisoners.  Finally, Dahlgren would be isolated and vulnerable if everything did not go according to plan.  Kilpatrick established no alternative courses of action in the event something went awry.  His plan was, as usual, daring but not well thought out.   

On February 28^th, Kilpatrick, Dahlgren and 3,500 cavalrymen left Sevensburg, Virginia marching to Beaver Dan Station where they tore up railroad track and burned captured Confederate supplies but could not maintain secrecy.  A train near the station escaped carrying a warning to Richmond.  The Confederates were indeed short on soldiers.  At first, all they could muster were Home Guard (militia), but soon thereafter Confederate General Wade Hampton set out in pursuit with a cavalry force.  Dahlgren and 500 cavalrymen split from Kilpatrick’s force.  From early on, the plan went askew when an unexpected winter storm produced heavy snow and sleet slowing Dahlgren’s advance.

On March 1^st, Dahlgren entered Goochland County, west of Richmond.  After burning Dover Mills and outbuildings at Sabot Hill Plantation, Dahlgren began searching in vain for a place to cross the James.  His guide, a free African American brick mason named Martin Robinson from Goochland, could not find a ford.  Unfortunately for Robinson, the recent weather had raised the level of the river making it impassible.  Suspecting Robinson was misleading him, Dahlgren hung him from a tree next to the river near Tuckahoe Plantation.

Later that day, Dahlgren was now late and still west of Richmond when he heard the gunfire north of Richmond.  Kilpatrick had reached the outskirts of Richmond long before Dahlgren was in position to attack Richmond.  Entrenched Confederate militia supported by artillery easily repulsed Kilpatrick’s attempt to enter Richmond.  With no sign of Dahlgren and Hampton closing in from his rear, Kilpatrick had no choice but to retreat east.  

Hearing the sound of Kilpatrick’s attack, Dahlgren abandoned the idea of crossing the James and settled on attacking north of the river.  Increasing his pace, Dahlgren ran headlong into a force of Confederate Home Guard that night near the modern intersection of River Road and Three Chopt Road.  Made up of factory workers, government clerks, teenagers and old men, the Home Guard made a stout defense that halted Dahlgren’s advance.  The sound of gunfire from Kilpatrick’s foray had long since faded leading Dahlgren to the conclusion that the mission had failed.  The only means of escape would be to march east around Richmond and hope Kilpatrick could be found.  Unfortunately for Dahlgren, Kilpatrick was long gone.  

Dahlgren successfully marched around Richmond but his command became separated.  Continually pursued and harassed, Dahlgren’s men moved too slowly.  Home Guard and cavalry managed to get in front of Dahlgren by sunset on March 2nd.  That night the Confederates ambushed Dahlgren and about 100 men.  Riddled with four bullets, Dahlgren died on the battlefield.  The remaining Union troopers with Dahlgren were captured and imprisoned in the very Richmond prisons they hoped to liberate.  Those who had become separated earlier fared better successfully returning to Union lines.  Overall, Kilpatrick and Dahlgren suffered about 350 casualties accomplishing very little.

What happened next generated a mystery that has continued to this day.  A Confederate militiaman searched Colonel Dahlgren’s body and allegedly found papers with the most extraordinary of orders.  Kilpatrick and Dahlgren had orders to burn Richmond, assassinate Confederate President Jefferson Davis and kill his cabinet.  The papers were forwarded to Jefferson Davis who read them out loud in the presence of Secretary of State Judah P. Benjamin.  After reading “once in the city it must be destroyed and Jeff Davis and cabinet killed” Davis paused, looked at Benjamin saying: “That means you Mr. Benjamin.”

The orders were published in the Richmond Examiner generating outrage throughout the Confederacy.  The newspapers compared Dahlgren to Attila the Hun and Confederates speculated that Lincoln himself may have given the barbaric orders.  In the Civil War era, armies still fought according to informal rules of limited warfare forbidding the killing of civilians and destruction of their property.*  Robert E. Lee went so far as to write the Army of Potomac commanders demanding an explanation.  General George Meade, an old comrade of Lee’s, assured him that the orders were not genuine and not authorized.  Union papers claimed the papers were forged and Admiral Dahlgren angrily denied his son would be involved in such a scandalous plan.

The controversy has never been resolved and has generated a considerable scholarly debate.  Some believe the orders to be too fantastic to be real.  Significantly Dahlgren’s name was misspelled in the order.  There is some evidence though tending to support the authenticity of the Dahlgren Papers but the author remains a mystery.

It seems highly unlikely Dahlgren would misspell his own name.  Kilpatrick could have issued the rogue orders himself, but he would have been taking a great risk in violating the rules of war on his own accord.  Confederate claims that Lincoln gave the order seem unlikely given Lincoln’s character and prior conduct.  Forgery is certainly a possibility but there was not much time between Dahlgren’s death and the presentation of the orders to Davis.

There is one more important piece of evidence.  After the war, the papers of the Confederate Government were removed to Washington DC.  Secretary of War Edwin Stanton specifically requested the Dahlgren Papers and they have never been seen since.  The papers could have been innocently lost, but Stanton was personally involved, he approved the raid.  If genuine, Stanton seems to be the most likely culprit.  At least one prominent historian, believes Stanton was the source.  Stephen Sears wrote: “The idea of liberating the maddened prisoners and exhorting them to carry out the death sentences and the pillaging was a masterstroke of rationalization and perfectly in character for the Secretary of War.”1

With the originals destroyed, no one will ever know for sure.  Dahlgren’s Raid was one of many stories coming out of the Civil War but it reveals much about Americans’ beliefs about the proper conduct of war and leaves us with an interesting debate.  I invite anyone interested to pose their own theory in the comment section below.

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*  Both sides violated these rules when it suited them.  The Civil War represented a turning point in American military doctrine and Sherman laid waste to Georgia in his Atlanta Campaign, March to the Sea, and Carolinas Campaign.  The Confederates were rarely in possession of Union territory and in Lee’s two northern invasions, he was careful to avoid destroying Northerners property or engaging in assaults on civilians.  However, Jubal Early burned Chambersburg, Pennsylvania in 1864 in reprisal for Union General “Black David Hunter burning farms and towns in the Shenandoah Valley.  Irregular Confederate forces such as John Moseby’s “Grey Ghosts” tried to kidnap Abraham Lincoln and pro-Confederate bushwhackers in Missouri frequently engaged in what we would call terrorist tactics today.

For other Civil War articles, please click on one or more of the links below:

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Confederate Submarine H. L. Hunley’s Historic Night and the Mysteries That followed

Stonewall Jackson achieved lasting fame and military immortality in 1862 in his Valley Campaign of 1862.  This article provides an interactive map of Jackson’s maneuvers and engagements:

Stonewall Jackson’s Valley Campaign

In 1862, Irish dominated Union and Confederate brigades faced off at Mayre’s Heights during the Battle of Fredericksburg with tragic results:

An American Tragedy at Fredericksburg: Clash of the Irish Brigades

Recently founded Virginia Military Institute played a significant role in filling the officer ranks of the Confederacy and a pivotal role in the Battle of New Market:

November 11: Veteran’s Day and Founding of VMI

Sources:

1  Sears, Stephen, Controversies and Commanders: Dispatches from the Army of the Potomac.  New York: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1999, p. 245.

Venter, Bruce M., Kill Jeff Davis: The Union Raid on Richmond, 1864.  Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 2016.

All photographs and engraving courtesy of Wikipedia.

Map courtesy of http://warfarehistorynetwork.com/daily/civil-war/the-dahlgren-affair-kilpatrick-dahlgren-raid-on-richmond/

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