[citation needed] The Overland Campaign was Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 offensive against Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

On May 8, 1864, Sheridan went over Meade's head and told Grant that if his Cavalry Corps were let loose to operate as an independent unit, he could defeat "Jeb" Stuart, long a nemesis to the Union army.

The Union cavalry column, which at times stretched for over 13 miles (21 km), reached the Confederate forward supply base at Beaver Dam Station that evening.

The Confederate troopers tenaciously resisted from the low ridgeline bordering the road to Richmond, fighting for over three hours.

A countercharge by the 1st Virginia Cavalry pushed the advancing Union troopers back from the hilltop as Stuart, mounted on horseback, shouted encouragement.

By abandoning the main theater of conflict to pursue his whimsical raid south, Sheridan deprived Grant of an important resource.

His victory at Yellow Tavern offered scant solace to the blue-clad soldiers hunkering in trenches above the courthouse town.