Anderson fell back to Tabernacle Church as our troops advanced, and began to fortify a line there.

Stuart sent Fitz Hugh Lee's brigade, which was very much exhausted, to Todd's Tavern for the night, while he started with a small escort, to explain the situation to General Lee at Fredericksburg.

On the road, not far from Spottsylvania, he came unexpectedly upon one of Pleasonton's regiments, the 6th New York Cavalry, numbering about 200 men, which was returning from a reconnoissance it had made in that direction.
He avoided the encounter and sent back to Todd's Tavern, at first for a regiment, but subsequently for the entire brigade.

When there reinforcements came up a furious cavalry contest took place, with charges and counter-charges, and hand to hand combats.

It was not without an element of romance, in that lonely spot, far from either army, under the resplendent light of the full moon; recalling, in the words of a Southern chronicler, some scene of knightly glory.