Background
Always lacking in supplies, the Confederate forces that were defending the capital of Richmond were beginning to run out of food. A report by General Robert E. Lee on August 22, 1864, stated that corn to feed the Southern soldiers was exhausted. A scout, Sergeant George D. Shadburne, informed General Hampton on September 5, 1864, that there were 3,000 cattle behind Union lines, at Edmund Ruffin's plantation on Coggin's Point, five miles (8 km) away from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters, which were lightly defended by only 120 Union soldiers and thirty civilians. Sensing an opportunity to increase the army's food stores, Hampton arranged for 3,000 troops to follow him. Some of these men included "several certified Texas cattle thieves".
Read more about this topic: Beefsteak Raid
Famous quotes containing the word background:
“In the true sense one’s native land, with its background of tradition, early impressions, reminiscences and other things dear to one, is not enough to make sensitive human beings feel at home.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“... every experience in life enriches one’s background and should teach valuable lessons.”
—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)