The First Encounter wayside marker is on the east side of Acorn Drive in front of the Oak Grove United Methodist Church. (see map at bottom) The marker is next to the Federal Debacle: “The retreat was a rout” wayside marker.
From the marker:
Reams’ Station
First Encounter
Wilson-Kautz Raid
In June 1864, to deny Gen. Robert E. Lee the use of the South Side R.R. and the Richmond and Danville R.R., Gen. Ulysses S. Grant sent Gen. James H. Wilson and Gen. August V. Kautz south of Petersburg on a cavalry raid to destroy track and rolling stock. The 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry, the advance guard of the Wilson-Kautz column, arrived here at Ream’s Station about 7:30 a.m. on June 22 and burned the station and other buildings. The road in front of you was the Petersburg & Weldon R.R. bed. Gen. James Dearing’s 800-man cavalry brigade of Gen. W.H.F. “Rooney” Lee’s cavalry division was alerted, and it engaged the rear of Wilson’s column in a running skirmish that continued some ten miles to Dinwiddie Court House.
[Reams Station] was guarded by a small body of militia. A portion of them were captured and the remainder dispersed. Here the sad but necessary work of destruction began. All the buildings at the station, together with a locomotive, and a train of five or six cars, were consigned to the flames.”
– Edward P. Tobie, 1st Maine Cavalry
“The enemy’s pickets were encountered near the Jerusalem Plank Road, and were closely pursued to Ream’s Station, several of them being captured along the way. General Kautz’s orders were to move directly to Southerland’s on the South Side Railroad, but the captured pickets informed him that General W.H.F. Lee, with two brigades of cavalry, was encamped in the path he was ordered to take. Being unwilling to endanger the expedition at the beginning by fostering an engagement, General Kautz turned the head of his column down the Weldon road, as if that was the object of the raid.”
– Trooper, 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry
From the captions to the inset drawing and photos:
Sketch by Edwin Forbes
Gen. James Dearing
Gen. W.H.F. Lee
The markers are on the east side of Acorn Drive, a side road that closely parallels Halifax Road from Oak Grove Road to Reams Drive. They are in front of the present-day Oak Grove United Methodist Church. The Civil War Trust Battlefield parking area is about 500 yards away to the south and west.