Gen. Hugh Judson Kilpatrick leaving Stevensburg on February 28 with 4,000 men, intending to raid Richmond.

Hampton caught up with Kilpatrick near Old Church on March 2, but the Federals were able to take refuge with elements of Butler's command at New Kent Court House.

The group became separated, and on March 2, Dahlgren, along with about 100 men, was ambushed by a detachment of the 9th Virginia Cavalry and Home Guards in King and Queen County near Walkerton.

The papers allegedly contained an official Union order to burn Richmond and assassinate Jefferson Davis and his cabinet.

At the time, however, the affair caused a great public outcry among Southerners, who accused the North of initiating "a war of extermination."