The all-cavalry Battle of Trevillian Station June 11&12 1864 was a two day affair centering around the relatively new Virginia Railroad , which had been built in the mid 1840"s though that part of Central Virginia .This line became a vital link for Lee's army defending Petersburg, bringing essential supplies from the Shenandoah Valley and other areas of the Confederacy, and offering a facility for rapid troop movements and communictions with other regions of the South. Numerous attempts were made to break this railroad earlier in the war, with limited success, Finally in june of 1864, Grant dispatched General Sheridan and two of his three cavalry divisions to make one last determined effort to sever this Confederate artery permanently, and then continue on to the Valley to aid General Hunter in Lynchburg, Colliding with the Confederate cavalry under Wade Hampton, who had been ordered by General Lee to interrupt this raid and protect the railroad, the opposing forces engaged in a particularly sharp twoday mounted and dismounted fight around and over the railroad in the area of Trevilian Station. After nightfall on the second day, his ammunition running low and losses in his regiments unusually high Sheridan withdrew his troopers from the field and returned by the route by which he had come, back to the Union lines east of Richmond, with the Confederate cavalry following .
TSBF"s Mission.... To Purchase & To Preserve
This area today is in a particularly scenic part of Virginia on Rt. 33, midway between Louisa Court House and Gordonsville, with Historic Green Springs just to the south. Though residential and industrial development of the area is continuing ,a good deal of the land remains at this time in agriculture or timber tracts. RIGHT NOW the opportunity still exists to purchase large sections that remain in their more natural state, similar to their appearance during the events of June 1864
BUT WE NEED YOUR HELP !
Become a member of the Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation and see your tax deductible donations save an important part of our heritage, as well as a portion of our beautiful rural Virginia countryside. If we don!t buy and protect it NOW we can be sure that it WILL BE developed residentially or commercially SOON . AND LOST FOREVER TO HISTORICAL PRESERVATION . "See that parking lot over there by that shopping mall" well be able to say to our families and friends several years from now as we drive through , that's where the battle of Trevilian Station was fought.
Just try to imagine.
Without your help that is just what is going to happen!
I have been to this site with a very good friend Gerald (Jerry) Harlow of the 23rd Va He is part of the Foundation and works hard at it . But its not just the Trevilian site that will be lost forever there are other battle sites that are being built on and that should not be!
