Driving 55mph and missing the Virginia Central Railroad station

where the largest, and bloodiest, cavalry battle of the Civil War was fought.

Over a two day killing spree (June 11-12, 1864), General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia Confederate cavalry, led by Major Generals Wade Hampton and Fitzhugh Lee, fought the Union cavalry of Lt. General General Ulysses S. Grant (attached to Grant’s Overland Campaign) under the command of Major General Philip Sheridan, and Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer, for control of the Virginia Central Railroad. Sheridan’s orders were to ensure that "every rail on the road destroyed should be so bent and twisted as to make it impossible to repair the road without supplying new rails."

There were 1,950 estimated casualties (950 Union; 1000 Confederate). At one point Custer found his troops surrounded by Lee’s Virginia Brigades in what historians would later refer to as “Custer’s First Last Stand.” Historians also note that this two day battle was the largest all-cavalry battle of the Civil War.

Today you drive down route 33 / VA 22, passing Haymaker Auto Repairs, Dollar General, and Fuller’s Appliance not even realizing that you’re in Trevilian until you see the Self Storage sign. You stop in at the Citgo to get gas and see a gravel road - 682 - that Google maps hasn’t been down, and out of curiosity drive down it and see an abandoned railroad depot. The only sounds you hear are the chatter of squirrels and birdsong, and the whoosh of big trucks as they zip down the road.

But if you listen, 157 years later, you might hear the sounds of sabers clashing, Springfield rifles firing, and the whinnying of horses. Maybe, if you listen more intensely you’ll hear the cursing of men as the tide of battle wages, the moaning of the wounded, men dying and asking for their mothers and fathers, and the screams of horses being slaughtered. Decades of rain, dirt, asphalt and gravel have covered the once blood soaked ground.

Trevilian is now a place you just drive by, and if you’re curious enough to stop and explore, see an old depot and wonder “if those walls could talk what story would they tell?”

There is a Trevilian Station Battlefield Foundation who, in partnership with the Civil War Trust, has dedicated themselves to preserving this history. You can find them at this URL:

https://www.trevilianstation.com/