Guinea Station / Sign Describing 1864 Campaign
Linda Walcroft
Copyright 2005
www.civilwarfieldtrips.com

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Sign

Guinea Station - Grant Maneuvers South

Civil War Trails Sign reads:

LEE VS. GRANT     THE 1864 CAMPAIGN

Gen. Winfield Hancock's Union Second Corps left Spotsylvania Court House after sunset on May 20, 1864. It trudged south along dark roads, headed toward Milford Station on the Richmond, Fredericksburg, and Potomac Railroad. Grant had ordered Hancock to Milford in the hope of luring the Confederated army out of its Spotsylvania trenches to a place where he could attack it and have the advantage.

Hancock reached Guinea Station about dawn, May 21. Pickets of the 9th Virginia Cavalry fired at the Union column, then disappeared to spread the alarm. Hancock continued south. As soon as his troops left Guinea Station, the Confederates begain tearing up the Downer's Bruidge, less than a mile behind you. A spirited attack by the 114th Pennsylvania Volunteers saved the bridge for the Union, however, enabling Warren's Fifth Corps to cross the river there later in the afternoon.

Captions to pictures on the sign indicate that they are of the 114th PA Volunteers, a Zouave regiment; Fairfield plantation house, which later burned and was torn down; and the Motley House, used by Grant as headquarters on May 21, 1864. The map shows the 1864 Overland Tour Route.

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