VA-SA27 Dahlgrens Cavalry Raid

Marker text: DAHLGREN'S CAVALRY RAID

In February 1864 a young Union officer, Col. Ulric Dahlgren, joined with Brig. Gen. H. Judson Kilpatrick to raid Richmond and free Federal prisoners of war. They planned for Kilpatrick's men to attack the city's northern defenses while Dahlgren would lead his men through Goochland County, cross the James River, and enter the city from the south. A local African American, Martin Robinson escorted the troopers to a nearby ford but the water was too high to cross. Suspecting trickery, Dahlgren hanged him near here on 1 March, and then attacked the city from the west. Defeated, he rode east in search of Kilpatrick and was killed the next day in King and Queen County.

Department of Historic Resources, 2001