Chester Station - Port Walthall Junction, Va

PORT WALTHALL JUNCTION, VA

MAY 7TH, 1864

(Also known as Chester Station)

Port Walthall Junction, Va., May 7, 1864. Detachments of 1Oth and 18th Army Corps. Early in the morning the brigades commanded by H. M. Plaisted, William B. Barton and J. C. Drake of the 1Oth corps and Hiram Burnham's brigade of the 18th corps, all under Brig.-Gen. W. H. T. Brooks, moved on the Bermuda Hundred road to cut the Petersburg & Richmond railroad from Chester Station to Port Walthall junction and farther south if practicable.

1Oth and 18th Army Corps. Early in the morning the brigades commanded by H. M. Plaisted, William B. Barton and J. C. Drake of the 1Oth corps and Hiram Burnham's brigade of the 18th corps, all under Brig. Gen. W. H. T. Brooks, moved on the Bermuda Hundred road to cut the Petersburg & Richmond railroad from Chester Station to Port Walthall junction and farther south if practicable.

Shortly after starting a small force of the enemy was discovered at the opposite end of a causeway leading
through a marsh.  The 8th Conn. was thrown forward as skirmishers, supported by the rest of Burnham's 
brigade, and the cavalry was sent to the turnpike.  Plaisted's brigade was thrown to the right, where it
proceeded down a ravine under cover to the railroad and at once started to destroy it. 

Barton's brigade moved to the left of Plaisted's, but it was with some difficulty and rather heavy loss that the 
Confederates were driven back and the railroad gained.  After some hours spent in tearing up tracks and 
destroying buildings, etc., Brooks withdrew, having suffered a loss of 20 killed, 229 wounded and 
40 captured or missing. One of the 2 Confederate brigades engaged lost 22 killed, 142 wounded and 13 missing.  
The casualties in the other were not reported.
 Source: The Union Army, vol. 5