VIENNA, Va., February 29, 2012 — Since Leap Year rolls around every four years with an extra day at the end of February, it is logical to assume that one of those fell within the 1861-1865 Civil War period. And it did, in 1864. The histories say little about it.
In peacetime, even then, there was no documentation on whether the ladies of that era knew they could propose marriage to the gentleman of their choice or not; women were pretty secondary at that time. But postcards from Victorian times show ladies laying traps for the men of their dreams. As far back as the 5th century in the Emerald Isle of Ireland, St. Bridget complained to good St. Patrick of the inequality of women having to wait to be asked for their hands in marriage. And, according to legend, St. Patrick said that henceforth on the February 29 of each Leap Year, a lady could do the asking!
It would take awhile before Scotland supposedly passed a law in 1288 that permitted them to take advantage of that event, going so far as to state that if a man declined a proposal in a Leap Year, the law would make him pay a fine. So much for the benefits of Leap Year’s famous day. Now back to warfare.
Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid
Monday, February 29, 1864 saw a rather foolish task undertaken by an aggressive, impulsive Union General, H. Judson Kilpatrick, and a 21-year old, Colonel Ulric Dahlgren, with little experience and even less judgment. This dynamic duo decided that by splitting their troops and overrunning Confederate General Wade Hampton, they could easily take Richmond, Va.
Aside from just capturing Richmond, the Capital of the Confederacy, they also hoped to be able to liberate all of the prisoners then being held in Libby Prison in Richmond (used only for Union Officers,) and Belle Isle prison, across a narrow spit of the James River from it, holding the general Union military prisoners.
General Kilpatrick heads to Libby Prison.
Dahlgren and his one unit of 100 men got to the Rapidan River the day before and effected a crossing, intending to meet up with General Kilpatrick. However, Kilpatrick and his 4,000 men had taken a different route through Beaver Dam Station in Hanover County. While there they tore up railroad tracks and burned the station. A train en route to Richmond spread the alarm, alerting the Confederate troops and giving them time to bolster their defensive lines.
At this point, Gen. Wade Hampton gathered his cavalry and took out after the Yankees, scattering them. Meanwhile Kilpatrick had reached the outer defenses of Richmond and waited for his compatriot, Dahlgren, to arrive.
Kilpatrick Beats A Hasty Retreat
By the next day, it was apparent to Kilpatrick that his promised aid would not be coming, and he made the decision to pull his men away from Richmond’s outer perimeter. Hampton’s men had already surprised Kilpatrick, and he beat a hasty retreat.
The Northern force never even got close to taking Richmond, and the prisoners they intended to free were instead joined by more Union soldiers taken prisoner by Hampton’s men. Dahlgren attempted to cross the James River at Dover Mills, but it had rained for the past few days, and they could not ford there.
Rather than blaming the problem on the weather, Col. Dahlgren grew incensed and put the blame on his Negro guide, Martin Robinson, promptly hanging the man using the reins of his own horse. As Dahlgren tried to get away with his troops, he was ambushed by Confederate cavalrymen and bushwhackers, led by Major James Pollard, and killed. (The Dahlgren gun, a shipboard Howitzer, owes its name to the inventor, Admiral John Dahlgren, Ulric’s father.)
While nothing was really accomplished other than some minor damage to railroads and buildings around them, Dahlgren’s death opened a can of worms that continues to provide arguments to this day.
Dahlgren, standing, studies "Art of War"
The “Dahlgren Papers”
William Littlepage, a thirteen-year old young man in Richmond’s home guards came across Dahlgren’s body, and discovered in his coat pocket the handwritten orders for the burning of Richmond as well as the planned assassination of President Jefferson Davis and all of his cabinet.
He took these incendiary papers to his teacher, Edward Halbach, and they were passed on up the line, reaching outraged Confederate authorities that released them to the press. Needless to say, the Union politicians and generals were rather surprised and embarrassed. Dahlgren’s father insisted they must be forgeries, while newspapers like the Richmond Examiner attested to their validity, stating “The depredations of the last Yankee raiders, and the wantonness of their devastation, equal anything heretofore committed during the war.”
The papers somehow disappeared shortly thereafter, and historians still debate if they came from Dahlgren, Kilpatrick, or even Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. Major General George Meade finally closed the subject by sending word to General Robert E. Lee that the papers were unsanctioned orders. That they were found on Dahlgren’s body and bore notations in the same hand as a small pocket notebook he carried was not investigated further.
Demotions and One Appointment
After the embarrassment of a failed raid, General Ulysses S. Grant replaced cavalry commander Alfred Pleasanton with Philip H. Sheridan and Judson Kilpatrick was demoted from division commander to a brigade leader.
Ulrich Dahlgren was dead, the Confederates had foiled an attempted raid on their primary Virginia City, and the Leap Year Day event went into history, notable only for a failed raid and President Lincoln’s appointment of Ulysses S. Grant as a Brigadier General.
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