September 10, 2025, 7:00 p.m. EST, I'll Talk to the Central Ohio Civil War Round Table about the Wilson-Kautz Raid

On September 10, 2025, at 7:00 p.m. EST, I'll talk to the Central Ohio Civil War Round Table about the Wilson-Kautz Raid, The talk will take place at La Navona, 154 N. Hamilton Road, Gahanna, OH 43230. My emphasis will be on the 2nd Ohio Cavalry, which participated in the raid.  I enjoy emphasizing units from the state where I'm speaking.  I also think that the 2nd deserves a regimental history, and I encourage someone else to write it.  Well-researched regimental histories function as tuning forks with which to test the credibility of histories of battles and campaigns.  

Route of Wilson-Kautz Raid in Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive (Map by Hal Jespersen)

The 2nd Ohio Cavalry participated in campaigns and battles in the West (February-December 1862), Midwest (December 1862-February 1864), and East (February 1864-May 1865).  It meets the major prerequisite for a regimental history--plenty of writings by its members.  August V. Kautz, the regiment's second colonel, left official reports, diaries, and articles.  He led a division in the Wilson-Kautz Raid that did not include the 2nd, which by that time belonged to McIntosh's brigade of Wilson's division.  Other writers in the regiment included Capt. Henry W. Chester, Lt. Luman Tenney, Sgt. Roger Hannaford, Sgt. Isaac Gause, and Pvt. William J. Smith.

Brig. Gen. August V. Kautz

The 2nd skirmished at Reams Station on the way out from Federal lines on June 22, the raid's first day.  The regiment with the rest of McIntosh's brigade remained in reserve at the battle of The Grove (also known as Black's and White's or Nottoway Court House) on June 23 and the battle of Staunton River Bridge on June 25.  On the evening of June 28, the 2nd in the lead of the raiders ran into and was halted by the infantry of the Holcombe Legion and the cavalry of Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton's cavalry division at Sappony Church on the way back to the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg.  The 2nd and the rest of McIntosh's brigade followed Kautz's division on the rerouting of the retreat by way of Reams Station and was halted there on June 29 by two brigades of Brig. Gen. William Mahone's infantry division.  After Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's division arrived, the Confederates attacked and split the raiders in two.  The 2nd broke out to the southeast and rejoined the Army of the Potomac that evening.

Reams Station, Afternoon June 29, 1864 (Map by Hal Jespersen from Lee Besieged)

To purchase a copy of Lee Besieged: Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18-July 1, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2025), where I describe the Wilson-Kautz Raid and the rest of Grant's Second Offensive, please click this link and the link that appears, and then the link on the redirect page.