MOUNTED MAYHEM
By the summer of 1862, Federal Brig. Gen. John P. Hatch and his brigade of horse soldiers were already seasoned veterans, having seen plenty of action on the short end of Stonewall Jackson’s legendary Shenandoah Valley Campaign earlier in the year. On June 26, in an effort to revive flagging Union prospects in the Eastern Theater, President Abraham Lincoln formed the Army of Virginia under Maj. Gen. John Pope. Lincoln desperately hoped that the pompous Pope, victor of several recent battles in Tennessee and Missouri, could crush Stonewall’s vaunted army once and for all.
Hatch’s cavalry, which consisted of the 1st Michigan, 5th New York, 1st Virginia (redesignated the 1st West Virginia when that state joined the Union in 1863), and 1st Vermont, was added to Pope’s ranks. The change of commander, however, did not improve Hatch’s fortunes. Assigned to destroy a portion of the Virginia Central Railroad, he and his troopers headed from Culpeper, Va., to the station town of Gordonsville on July 17, only to get beaten to the town by Confederate infantry by proceeding at a ponderous pace. Although Hatch’s brigade had been accompanied on its march by infantry and artillery, the general decided not to face the Southerners when he reached Gordonsville and withdrew.
After Hatch failed in a second attempt to wreck the railroad the following week—blaming the
