The Battle of Yellow Tavern was fought on May 11, 1864, as part of the Overland Campaign of the American Civil War. Union cavalry under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan was detached from Grant’s Army of the Potomac to conduct a raid on Richmond, Virginia, and challenged Confederate cavalry commander Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart. The Confederates were outnumbered, and Stuart was mortally wounded. However, Sheridan’s 'sideshow' did not achieve any of its other objectives, and had meanwhile deprived Grant’s army of key cavalry functions at Spotsylvania.
Battle of Yellow Tavern
The Overland Campaign, also known as Grant's Overland Campaign and the Wilderness Campaign, was a series of battles fought in Virginia during May and June 1864, towards the end of the American Civil War. Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all Union armies, directed the actions of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, and other forces against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Although Grant suffered severe losses during the campaign, it was a strategic Union victory. It inflicted proportionately higher losses on Lee's army and maneuvered it into a siege at Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia, in just over eight weeks.
Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, respectively, opposing commanders in the Overland Campaign
Union staff meeting at Massaponax Baptist Church on May 21, 1864. Grant has his back to the smaller tree with Charles Anderson Dana to his left, while Meade is seated at the far left.
Movement to Totopotomoy, May 25–28, 1864, following the Battle of North Anna
Battle of Totopotomoy Creek, May 30, 1864