The Battle of Saint Mary's Church (also called Samaria Church in the South, or Nance's Shop) was an American Civil War cavalry battle fought on June 24, 1864, as part of Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's Overland Campaign against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
As Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's Union cavalry of the Army of the Potomac returned from their unsuccessful raid against the Virginia Central Railroad and the Battle of Trevilian Station, they gathered up supply wagons from the recently abandoned supply depot at White House and proceeded toward the James River. On June 24, the Confederate cavalry under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton attacked the column of Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg's division at St. Mary's Church. The Confederates outnumbered the Union cavalrymen five brigades to two and were able to drive them from their breastworks, but Gregg's men successfully screened the wagon train, which continued to move unmolested to the James.
Following the Battle of Trevilian Station (June 11–12, 1864), Sheridan's cavalry began to return on June 13 from their unsuccessful raid against the Virginia Central Railroad. They crossed the North Anna River at Carpenter's Ford and then headed on the Catharpin Road in the direction of Spotsylvania Court House. On June 16 the column passed through Bowling Green and, traveling along the north bank of the Mattaponi River, arrived at King and Queen Court House on June 18.
While Sheridan's men were off on their raid, Grant's army had begun moving from Cold Harbor to cross the James River for an attack against Petersburg. In conjunction with this move, Grant ordered that his principal supply base be moved from White House on the Pamunkey River to City Point on the James. Sheridan learned that the White House depot had not yet been broken up, so he sent his wounded, prisoners, and African-Americans who had been following his column, to White House under escort on June 19, and then marched back to Dunkirk, where he could cross the Mattaponi.
Hampton's Confederate cavalry left Trevilian Station and followed Sheridan on roughly parallel roads to the south. His force consisted of Brig. Gen. Matthew C. Butler's and Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Rosser's brigades from his own division, Brig. Gen. Williams C. Wickham's brigade from Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's division, and Brig. Gen. John R. Chambliss's brigade from Maj. Gen. W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee's division. He added a newly formed cavalry brigade under Brig. Gen. Martin W. Gary.
On June 20, Fitz Lee attempted to attack the Union supply depot at White House, but Sheridan's arrival relieved the garrison there. On June 21, Sheridan crossed over the Pamunkey River, broke through the Confederate cordon at St. Peter's Church, and led 900 wagons toward the James River. They crossed the Chickahominy River on June 22 and June 23, bypassing stiff opposition south of Jones's Bridge on June 23; Hampton had been unable to intercept Sheridan prior to this, so crossed the Chickahominy upstream from the Union crossing and hastened south.
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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