The Beefsteak Raid was a Confederate cavalry raid that took place in September 1864 as part of the Siege of Petersburg during the American Civil War. By this time, Confederate forces began to show the ill effects of a drawn-out war. Food, ammunition and medicine were all  in short supply.

The growing desperation of his troop’s situation forced General Wade Hampton to undertake what would become one of the most ambitious raids of the war. On September 15th he set out to commandeer an entire herd of cattle, numbering in the thousands, from the surrounding Union Army. By September 17th he had not only accomplished his goal, he also managed to drive the herd back to the safety of his own lines. Abraham Lincoln called the raid "the slickest piece of cattle-stealing" he ever heard of.