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.  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