Walkerton was a Civil War engagement fought in Virginia, 1864. It was a Confederate victory.
On February 28, Brig. Gen. Judson Kilpatrick left his encampment at Stevensburg with 4,000 picked men to raid Richmond. Col. Ulric Dahlgren, son of Rear Adm. John Dahlgren, commanded an advance force of 500 men. While the main body under Kilpatrick rode along the Virginia Central Railroad tearing up track, Dahlgren rode south to the James River, hoping to cross over, penetrate Richmond's defenses from the rear, and release Union prisoners at Belle Isle. Kilpatrick reached the outskirts of Richmond on March 1 and skirmished before the city's defenses, waiting for Dahlgren to rejoin the main column. Dahlgren, however, was delayed, and Kilpatrick was forced to withdraw with Confederate cavalry in pursuit. Hampton attacked Kilpatrick near Old Church on the 2nd, but the Federals found refuge with elements of Butler's command at New Kent Court House. In the meantime, Dahlgren's men, unable to penetrate Richmond's defenses, tried to escape pursuit by riding north of the city. Dahlgren's command became separated, and on March 2 his detachment of about 100 men was ambushed by a detachment of the 9th Virginia Cavalry and Home Guards in King and Queen County near Walkerton. Dahlgren was killed and most of his men captured. Papers found on Dahlgren's body that ordered him to burn Richmond and assassinate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet caused a political furor. Southerners accused the North of initiating "a war of extermination." Meade, Kilpatrick, and Lincoln all disavowed any knowledge of the Dahlgren Papers.
Fought on March 2, 1864, near Walkerton in King and Queen County, Virginia, this clash formed part of the larger Kilpatrick-Dahlgren Raid during the American Civil War.
The operation began on February 28, when Brig. Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick departed Stevensburg with a force of 4,000 troopers, aiming to strike at Richmond. As his main body moved along the Virginia Central Railroad, destroying rail lines as they went, a smaller detachment pushed southward near the James River. Col. Ulric Dahlgren, whose father was Rear Admiral John Dahlgren, commanded this advance party, tasked with breaking through Richmond's rear defenses and freeing captives held at Belle Isle. But when Kilpatrick's column arrived outside Richmond on March 1, Dahlgren's men were nowhere to be seen. Facing pressure from Confederate horsemen under Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, Kilpatrick chose to pull back. Hampton's cavalry overtook him near Old Church on March 2, though Kilpatrick's soldiers managed to find safety alongside portions of Butler's command stationed at New Kent Court House.
Dahlgren, meanwhile, could not break through Richmond's defensive lines and turned his men northward in an attempt to escape. His command splintered during this retreat, and on March 2 a Confederate force, made up of a detachment from the 9th Virginia Cavalry along with local Home Guards, ambushed Dahlgren and roughly a hundred of his soldiers in King and Queen County close to Walkerton. Dahlgren died in the fighting along with several of his men, and Confederate forces captured most of the survivors.
What made this raid especially consequential was the discovery of documents on Dahlgren's body. These papers supposedly revealed a Union directive ordering Richmond's destruction by fire and the killing of Jefferson Davis and his cabinet members. In response, an enraged crowd dug up Dahlgren's body and displayed it publicly in Richmond. Meade, Kilpatrick, and Lincoln each denied any connection to what became known as the Dahlgren Papers, and scholars have long questioned whether the documents were genuine. Nevertheless, the incident sparked intense fury throughout the South at the time, with many accusing their opponents of launching "a war of extermination."
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