The Battle of Vaughan Road, also spelled "Vaughn", was an American Civil War engagement between Confederate States Army and Union Army cavalry forces protecting the flank of the main Union attack on Confederate positions on the western end of the Confederate line on October 1, 1864 during the Battle of Peebles' Farm, part of the Siege of Petersburg. The Union force repulsed Confederate attacks and protected ground just gained at McDowell's Farm and an important road junction on the Vaughan Road at the Wyatt Road. They inflicted about 130 casualties on the Confederates while losing about 90 men, about half of whom were taken prisoner. During the battle, Confederate Brigadier General John Dunovant was killed. Union Army Sergeant James T. Clancy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 3, 1865, was credited with firing the fatal shot.
In the overall actions on September 29, 1864, through October 2, 1864, the Union force suffered about twice as many casualties as the Confederate forces but both sides lost about the same percentage of their forces. The Union forces took some key positions and forced the Confederates to extend their increasingly thinly manned lines of defense at Petersburg, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia. They did not achieve all of their objectives and did not cut the Boydton Plank Road which was a vital Confederate supply line.
During the Siege of Petersburg, in late September 1864, Union Army overall commander Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant planned attacks on both sides of Confederate States Army General Robert E. Lee's works guarding Petersburg, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia, in what would become the Union Army's "Fifth Offensive" during the siege. In heavy fighting on September 30, 1864, Union forces under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren, Major General John G. Parke, Brigadier General Charles Griffin and cavalry corps commander, Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg, seized an outer portion of the western end of the Confederate line, including key intersections around Peebles' Farm. They did not reach their objective of cutting the Boydton Plank Road, a key supply line for the besieged Confederate forces. While the Union generals, including Army of the Potomac commander Major General George G. Meade, planned to protect their gains and possibly to renew the attack to some extent, Confederate Lieutenant General A. P. Hill, Major General Henry Heth, cavalry corps commander Major General Wade Hampton and other Confederate commanders planned to hit the right side of the attacking Union force, which they assumed was weaker than the rest of the Union line. Based on Confederate reaction at the Battle of Globe Tavern, Union commanders were wary of just such a counterattack.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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