The Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864 was a cavalry battle on the northern outskirts of Richmond. It was notable for the mortal wounding of Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart. While most of the battlefield has been swallowed by a freeway and suburban development it is commemorated today by a monument to Stuart and a wayside marker hidden in a quiet residential neighborhood (see map below).

While Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia slugged it out with George Meade’s Army of the Potomac in the bloodbath at Spotsylvania Court House, Union Cavalry commander Phil Sheridan led his cavalry on a raid toward Richmond with the avowed intent to smash J.E.B. Stuart’s Confederate cavalry.

In the early years of the war the Confederates laughed at the inept Union horsemen, but by the spring of 1864 many of them had learned their trade and were becoming very good indeed. Worse than that, there were a great number of them.

Stuart intercepted Sheridan’s men a few miles north of Richmond near a dilapidated tavern. The day of fighting resulted in a Union victory, although Sheridan chose not to try to enter Richmond. The South’s loss was was made much greater when Stuart was mortally wounded.

Today little is left of the 1864 battlefield. Interstate highways and suburban neighborhoods have covered the area. In a residential neighborhood on a side street that was at one time a main road a monument and wayside marker are the lonely reminders of the death of a legend.

Yellow Tavern wayside marker

The Yellow Tavern wayside marker is at the base of the ridge on which the monument to J.E.B. Stuart stands.

Text from the marker:

Yellow Tavern
Stuart’s Last Battle

While Grand and Lee fought at Spotsylvania, Gen. Philip H. Sheridan took 12,000 Federal Cavalry on a raid toward Richmond. After destroying a large Confederate supply depot at Bever Dam Station, Sheridan’s troopers met 4,000 Southern cavalrymen under Gen. J.E.B. Stuart near here at Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864. Union cavalry attacked from the west and in heavy hand-to-hand fighting drove Gen. Lunsford Lomax’s Brigade from Telegraph Road before pushing northward.

Late in the day, while the Richmond local defense troops gathered to guard the cappital, Sheridan attacked Stuart on this high ground. The Confederate line shattered. Stuart fell fatally wounded here while rallying his men.

Although the road to Richmond seemed open, Sheridan chose to skirt the city and rejoin Grant’s army.

From the caption to the drawing:

Confederate cavalry commander J.E.B. Stuart(inset) ws mortally wounded during the battle of Yellow Tavern, May 11, 1864.

From the caption to the map:

In the battle’s first phase, Sheridan broke the Confederate line along the Telegraph Road. He then swung north and captured Stuart’s second line on this high ground.

Monument to J.E.B. Stuart

The monument to Confederate Major General James Ewell Brown Stuart stands on a low ridge near where Stuart was mortally wounded during the Battle of Yellow Tavern on May 11, 1864.

Stuart at Yellow Tavern

Stuart was the commander of the Cavalry Corps of Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia. He was leading his badly outnumbered men at Yellow Tavern to try to prevent Union General Philip Sheridan’s Union Cavalry from capturing Richmond.

After a charge by two regiments of Union General George’ Custer’s Michigan Cavalry Brigade was thrown back by the First Virginia Cavalry, Stuart joined the Virginia troopers to rally them after their countercharge. He rode up to a fence line that paralleled the withdrawal of the Wolverines, firing his big LeMatt revolver across the fence and yelling, “Give it to them!”

One of the returning Union troopers who had been dismounted in the charge was John A. Huff of the 5th Michigan Cavalry. He had served two years as a sharpshooter before reenlisting in the cavalry, and as he walked by he returned Stuart’s fire with one shot from his revolver from about thirty feet away.

Stuart was hit through the stomach, the bullet exiting near the spine. He knew it was mortal. An ambulance carried him into Richmond in great pain. He died the next evening before his wife, Flora, could reach him.

Robert E. Lee was stunned when he received the news. He told a staff officer that he could hardly keep from weeping at the mere mention of Stuart’s name.

From the bronze marker directly below the monument on the embankment wall:

Gen. J.E.B. Stuart
Born Feb. 6, 1833
Died May 12, 1864

From the bronze tablet in the embankment wall below the monument:

This monument erected in
memory of Major General
James Ewell Brown Stuart
C.S.A. by his cavalrymen
about thirty feet from the
spot where he fell mortally
wounded on May 11, 1864, was
dedicated June 18, 1888, by
the Governor of Virginia,
Fitzhugh Lee, a former
division commander in
Stuart’s Cavalry.

Re-dedicated May 9, 1864
Henrico County Civil War
Centennial Commission

From the front of the monument:

Stuart

Upon this field
Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart
Commanding Confederate Cavanlry
A.N.Va.
Received his mortal wound
May 11, 1864

From the right side of the monument:

He was
Fearless and Faithful
Pure and Powerful
Tender and True

From the rear of the monument:

He saved Richmond
but he gave his life
Born Feb. 6, 1833
Died May 12, 1864

From the left side of the monument:

This stone is erected
by some of his comrades
to commemorate
his virtues

Map and directions to the Yellow Tavern monument and marker

The monument and wayside marker to J.E.B. Stuart and Yellow Tavern are in a residential neighborhood north of Richmond on the west side of Telegraph Road. From Exit 43 on Interstate 295 go north 1/2 mile on U.S. 1. Turn right on Virginia Center Parkway 1/2 mile, turn right (south) on Telegraph Road and proceed 0.2 mile. (37.661582° N, 77.453516° W)