Battle of Old Church - Background

Background

As the infantry of the two armies fought at the Battle of Bethesda Church on May 30, Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, the Union Cavalry Corps commander, began to receive requests for assistance from Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, commander of the V Corps, who was concerned that his isolated advanced position on the left flank of the Union army put him at risk. The Cavalry Corps was encamped near the Haw's Shop battlefield, concentrated in the area to protect the road network that led to the supply base at White House on the Pamunkey River and the New Castle Ferry, an area through which reinforcements from Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith's XVIII Corps were expected to travel. Sheridan initially paid little attention to Warren's requests because he still harbored ill feelings from arguments the two generals had at the beginning of the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House. Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, had also quarreled frequently with both Sheridan and Warren and therefore stayed out of this dispute between them. However, as Warren's requests became more urgent, Sheridan agreed to screen roads leading to Warren's left flank, assigning the task to his division under Brig. Gen. Alfred T. A. Torbert. Torbert delegated the responsibility to the brigade of Col. Thomas C. Devin, which was encamped at the Old Church crossroads. As instructions passed through this chain of command, they became garbled. Rather than patrolling the Old Church Road to the west as desired by Warren, Devin was led to understand that he would picket the Bottoms Bridge Road leading south toward Old Cold Harbor. He placed his brigade in a good defensible position on the north bank of Matadequin Creek and sent a squadron from the 17th Pennsylvania Cavalry to a forward position at the Barker farm, south of the creek.

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Sheridan, Robert E. Lee was concerned about the critical road intersection at Old Cold Harbor, only six miles from the Confederate capital of Richmond. He dispatched Brig. Gen. Matthew C. Butler's brigade of 2,000 troopers from Mechanicsville to determine whether the intersection was threatened. Butler took with him the 4th and 5th South Carolina Cavalry regiments from his own brigade (leaving behind 6th South Carolina, which he considered to be too inexperienced) and the small brigade of Brig. Gen. Martin W. Gary, which consisted of only the 7th South Carolina Cavalry. The Confederate cavalrymen departed midmorning on May 30 and arrived near the Barker farm between 1 and 2 p.m.