 Always lacking in supplies, the Confederate forces that were defending the capital of Richmond were beginning to run out of food.A report by General Robert E. Lee on August 22, 1864, stated that corn to feed the Southern soldiers was exhausted.A scout, Sergeant George D. Shadburne, informed General Hampton on September 5 that there were 3,000 lightly defended cattle behind Union lines, at Edmund Ruffin's plantation on Coggin's Point, down the James River from Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters.