December 1, 1864
At daylight General
Gregg made a start, with nearly his whole cavalry division, for Stony Creek
station. For you must know that, since we have held the Weldon road, the enemy have
been obliged to waggon much of their supplies from Stony Creek station, by
cross roads to the Boydton plank and thus to Petersburg. Lately we have had
reports that they were building a cross railroad from Stony Creek to the
southside road. Gregg's object therefore was to go to the station, which is
over twenty miles by the road from our lines, find out if this railroad were
really in progress or not, and do as much damage as possible. Instead of going
straight down he, by advice of General Meade, bore a little to the east and
then suddenly swung round, when he got a little below the station. The
consequence was he came on them where they didn't look for him. There were two
redoubts, with regular ditch, etc., intended to keep off raiders; there was a thirty-pounder
Parrott and a twelve-pounder field-piece mounted in them, and a few infantry as
garrison. Their cavalry took to their heels, prudently. The infantry got in the
redoubts and fired away with their cannon; but it got taken in a novel fashion.
A regiment of cavalry charged to within 100 yards, then tumbled off their
horses and made a rush at the parapet, and ran right over the occupants. This
gave them possession of the station, and then there followed a scene of general
smashing, which, according to witnesses, was highly amusing. The men, feeling
like mischievous boys, went at everything tooth and nail. They took several
hundred bales of hay and piled them against a stack of short forage, which
contained between 3000 and 5000 bags. Then they set the whole on fire, and
helped the blaze with a lot of new tents. Next they tied down the safety-valve
of a locomotive, built a big fire under the boiler, and blew her up by this
scientific process. After distributing the contents of a number of Rebel Thanksgiving
boxes on the principle of spolia forti, they ended by a display of
fireworks consisting of a shed full of ammunition, which was fired and allowed
to go off at its convenience. Then they retreated, in great glee, taking with
them 170 prisoners, who were not in such great glee. One was a scamp
named Major Fitzhugh, who, when Captain Lazelle, of our cavalry, was made
prisoner, put a pistol to his head and made him give him his boots. Captain
Freikle told me he had a mind to make the scoundrel march the twenty miles
barefooted, but couldn't bring his mind to anything so mean. I would
have made him do it.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 285-7
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