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LAST CALL--As with
many Civil War battles, historians do not always agree on what to call the
fighting that took place on April 6, 1865. Firstly, the stream over which the
two armies contended was not Sailor's Creek, but rather one of its tributaries,
called Little Sailor's Creek. Secondly, the battlefield is broken into three
geographic areas—the Lockett Farm, the Hillsman Farm, and Marshall's
Crossroads—each of which can be regarded as a battle in its own right. Each has a claim as being the last great
battle of the Civil War. Contemporary painting by Keith Rocco, www.keithrocco.com.
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APRIL 6, 1865
Editor’ note: In this authoritative historical work, so many names are
mentioned that Pillar to Post has taken the liberty of outlining the names in red for the south and blue
for the North. We understand true Civil
War buffs don’t need this assistance, but for the rest of us it is valuable.
GUEST BLOG, PART
ONE--By Chris Calkins, Civil War Trust via Militaryhistory.about.com--It
had been one disaster after another for Lee’s
Army of Northern Virginia during that first week of April 1865. On the 1st, at
a road junction in Dinwiddie County known as Five Forks, Federal cavalry and
infantry smashed a similar force protecting the last supply line into
Petersburg, the South Side Railroad.
This southern command was composed of foot soldiers led by
Generals George E. Pickett and horsemen by Fitzhugh Lee. This group was told by Lee to “hold Five
Forks at all hazards,” since this important road junction was just south of the
railroad and the avenue of approach to it.
When word reached General Ulysses
S. Grant about the victory there by Generals Philip
H. Sheridan and Gouvernor K. Warren,
he gave the order for a series of assaults on the main Confederate line
defending the long sought after railroad center of Petersburg.
By early morning of the 2nd of April, Grant’s columns
successfully broke through Lee’s defenses, virtually dividing his forces in
two. Sadly this day the Confederacy would lose one of its finest corps
commanders, General Ambrose Powell, in a brief
but deadly confrontation with two Federal soldiers. The rest of the day would
see numerous clashes in different sectors of the lines and the names of Fort
Mahone, Fort Gregg and Sutherland Station
became battle honors for the men of both sides. That night, Lee would
give orders to withdraw his forces from the three fronts he protected for
almost nine and one-half months.
General James Longstreet’s
First Corps, along with General Richard S. Ewell’s
Reserve Corps, would leave the Richmond defenses and cross to the south side of
the James River. General William Mahone, whose
division held the Howlett Line between the James and Appomattox Rivers across
Bermuda Hundred, moved inland to Chesterfield Court House. General Lee, with
General John B. Gordon’s Second Corps and the
remnants of Hill’s Third Corps, passed through the “Cockade City” and crossed
to the north bank of the Appomattox. Finally, those cut off at Five Forks and
by the breakthrough in the lines west of the city, would stay south of the
Appomattox River. The rendezvous point of all these contingents of Lee’s army
would be Amelia Court House on the Richmond and Danville Railroad, about 30
miles to the west.
Initially, plans had been made for the evacuation of
Richmond and Petersburg with the idea that Lee would take his army to North
Carolina and join up with that of General Joseph E.
Johnston’s operating near Raleigh. To do this they would obtain supplies
and subsistence at Amelia, then would follow the railroad toward Danville and
the border. Making an all night march on the night of April 2nd-3rd, Lee was
able to gain a lead on the Federals, who would take most of the day in
occupying the newly captured cities of Petersburg and Richmond.
The first obstacle that confronted the Southern troops on
the march was that most would have to recross the Appomattox River in order to
get to Amelia. Plans had been previously made for three bridge crossings, one
at Genito, one at Goodes and the other at Bevills. Unfortunately spring
flooding made Bevills impassible and the failure to get pontoons to Genito
caused complications there. Eventually the troops at the latter point, those of
General Ewell, would plank the Richmond &
Danville Railroad bridge near Mattoax to cross. Most all other troops then had
to pass over the regular and pontoon bridges at Goodes.
By the morning of the 4th, the Confederate troops were
beginning to fill the streets of the county seat village. As Lee and his
officers reached the area of the railroad station, they opened the cars to find
large amounts of ordnance supplies but no food. Knowing his men could not go on
without subsistence, he issued a proclamation to the local citizens for help.
At the same time he ordered supplies sent up the railroad from Danville and
awaited the arrival of the rest of his forces, particularly those coming from
the Richmond defenses who were waylayed in crossing the Appomattox.
Grant, besides moving
into Richmond and Petersburg, also began preparing his remaining troops for the
pursuit. His numerous corps would be south of the Appomattox River and would
stay as thus. Sheridan’s cavalry were
already pressing the Confederates who escaped the debacle at Five Forks and
continued to fight rearguard actions with the enemy at such places as Scott’s
Crossroads, Namozine Church, Deep Run and Tabernacle Church. Seeing that the
Confederates were falling back into Amelia Court House, it now became apparent
where Lee’s army was locating itself.
Realizing that the goal must be Danville and North Carolina, the
troopers rode off to cut the railroad in front of Lee. If they could achieve
this, and get enough infantry there to support them, Lee’s plan would be
thwarted.
As the forage wagons began returning to the Court House on
the 5th, Lee saw little arrive in the form of supplies. He had failed to feed
his army, and, more importantly, lost his days’ lead on Grant’s forces. He
later lamented that “this delay was fatal and could not be retrieved.” His
commanders then set about putting the army in motion, marching down the
railroad toward Danville and its next station, Jetersville. Lee would
eventually join the van of the column after hearing skirmish fire in the front.
A mounted cavalry officer in the distance proved to be his
son “Rooney” (William Henry Fitzhugh) as General
Lee and General Longstreet rode into the woods near Jetersville. There appeared
to be trouble up ahead that might possibly change the plans of going directly
to North Carolina. General W. H. F. Lee reported to his superiors what he
had reconnoitered: dismounted Federal
cavalry was entrenched across the road and infantry was surely to follow.
Should Lee attack and clear the road or try another alternative?
Because of the lateness of the evening and the fact that
Lee’s column was well spread out, the general decided to change his original
plans. He would make a night march, passing to the north of the Federal left
flank, and head west for Farmville on the South Side Railroad. There he could
obtain supplies for his army, then head south, intersecting the Danville rail
line near Keysville. To be successful, once again he would have to out distance
Grant’s army.
BLACKEST
DAYS BEGIN
As the Confederates groped through the night, they had to
first ford Flat Creek then pass through the country resort of Amelia Springs.
As the morning of the 6th dawned, the troops had nearly bypassed the
unsuspecting Federals, when the crack of skirmish fire was heard across the creek.
Elements of Union infantry observed the final contingents of Lee’s column
moving along the opposite ridge and immediately set out in pursuit. It was the
beginning of what was later referred to by some historians as the black day of
Lee’s army.
The route the Confederates followed ran through a couple of
hamlets before reaching Farmville, 23 miles away. The first was merely a
crossroads called Deatonsville. From there the road passed through bottomlands
traversed by Little Sailor’s Creek (current spelling Sayler’s), a tributary of
the Appomattox River.
Continuing westward, the South Side Railroad was reached at
Rice’s Depot and from there the road ran directly into Farmville. The terrain
throughout the area was generally rolling being slashed occasionally by various
watercourses: Flat Creek, Big and Little
Sailor’s Creek, and Sandy and Bush Rivers. Bordering to the north was the
generally unfordable Appomattox River with its only crossings being at
Farmville and three miles northeast at High Bridge (South Side Railroad
trestle).
In the van of Lee’s column was General James Longstreet’s combined First and Third Corps,
followed by Richard Anderson’s small corps of Generals Pickett
and Bushrod Johnson’s
divisions, then General Richard S. Ewell’s
Reserve Corps made up of Richmond garrison troops, the main wagon train, and
finally General John B. Gordon’s Second Corps
acting as rearguard.
It would be the Federal II Corps that spied Gordon’s troops
passing near Amelia Springs at daybreak on the 6th and set out in immediate
pursuit. Following on a parallel road to the south of the one that the
Confederates were moving on was fast riding blue cavalry under General Sheridan. Close behind them would be
General Horatio G. Wright’s VI Corps leaving
from their trenched position at Jetersville.
The showery morning march of Longstreet
was broken when the general received news of a bridge burning party of Union
cavalry and infantry, about 900 strong, heading for the High Bridge. They had
been sent from General Edward O. C. Ord’s
Army of the James at Burkeville Junction where the Richmond & Danville and
South Side Railroads crossed.
Longstreet immediately
dispatched General Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry to
chase then down and prevent any destruction to this important crossing. Not
only were they successful in doing so, they completely captured the lot,
although at the high cost of General James Dearing’s
life (mortally wounded) in some brief but savage fighting. He would be the last
Confederate general to die in the war.
While Longstreet was arriving
at Rice’s Depot, the rear of his column became separated from the head of Anderson’s Corps. Observant Federal cavalry, led by
General George A. Custer saw their chance to
wreak havoc. Charging into the gap, the troopers were able to put up a
roadblock in Anderson’s front. At the same time,
Ewell, realizing that further attacks were
imminent, decided to send the wagon train on a more northerly route than the
one the army was traveling. This he did at a local crossroads called Holt’s
Corner about a mile northeast of the Little Sailor’s Creek crossing. Gordon, being heavily pressed by General Andrew A. Humphreys II Corps, followed the trains,
as did the Federals. The stage was being set for the Battles of Little Sailor’s
Creek.
The area where Anderson
decided to make his stand was at a crossroads bounded by the Harper and
Marshall farms. This was about one mile southwest of the road crossing over the
creek. As the wagon train was departing the main column, Ewell took his force to the southwest side of the
creek. Here he formed a battleline on a ridge parallel to the creek facing
northeast, over looking the Hillsman farm. Shortly, the opposite high ground
would be swarming with Federals from the VI Corps who were quickly arriving on
the scene. General Wright immediately set
about emplacing his artillery, which began firing on the Confederate line.
Ewell, devoid of any
artillery, could not reply as his men hugged the ground to escape the flying
shrapnel. It was now about quarter past five in the evening.
Simultaneous with this, Sheridan’s
subordinate, General Wesley Merritt, was
preparing the three cavalry divisions for an assault on Anderson. These
horsemen were commanded by General George A. Custer,
General Thomas Devin and General George Crook.
Anderson’s men, a mile in
front of Ewell, readied themselves by building
breastworks out of fence rails as they dug in along the road. They did have
artillery and would soon put it to use against the mounted troopers.
After a half hour bombardment, Wright’s
men (two divisions under Generals Truman Seymour
and Frank Wheaton) formed their battleline
and advanced to the creek. Because of a spring freshet, Little Sailor’s Creek
was out of its banks and ran from two to four feet deep. The men crossed this
with great difficulty, reformed their line, and began the assault upon the
Confederate position. When the Federals were within easy range, Ewell’s men rose and fired a volley into the blue
line, causing its center to break and fall back.
Lieutenant George Peck,
2nd Rhode Island Infantry, was "seeing the elephant" for the first
time in this battle, having just joined the army. He wrote with exactness his recollections
after crossing the creek. "We were
at the foot of a moderately steep, turf-covered declivity over whose summit the
foliage of dense trees was visible. Some
20 rods to our left this growth, sufficiently dark and threatening, extended
down the hillside to the creek....At the word 'FORWARD!' the men sprang to
their feet, fired into the woods, and with a cheer dashed forward on the
run. Gaining a few rods, they fell,
loaded (officers meanwhile simply stooping), rose again, fired, and made a
second dash....With the third dash came the words: 'Now close on them--Go for
them!"
As Lieutenant Peck's
company continued "at length I imagined I had about reached the summit,
and must be ready to close on the hostiles, so I looked up; but lo! no one was
before me. Surprised and perplexed, I
turned to the left and no one was there.
The colors were already half way down the hill and moving deliberately
to the rear; the soldiers on the extreme left had already reached the
creek. Glancing now to the right, I
found the nearest man, eight or ten feet away, was wheeling about. As I did not care to present any Confederate
with either sword, watch or revolver, and could offer but slight resistance
when single-handed, I concluded to retrace my steps also, and accordingly
commenced a march in common time to the rear."
What happened then as Peck's
regiment and others retreated to the creek, portions of General Custis Lee's command, caught up in the spirit of the
moment, made a counterattack all the way to the creek, only to be thrown back
themselves with great loss. Of particular note among their casualties was
Colonel Stapleton Crutchfield, former Chief of
Artillery in General Stonewall Jackson's Corps .
Regrouping themselves, the Federals once again charged Ewell’s line, this time overwhelming it on both flanks
but only after deadly hand-to-hand combat. Their efforts would result in the
capture of six Confederate generals (Ewell, Custis Lee,
Joseph Kershaw, Seth Barton, James Simms, Dudley Dubose) and more than
3,000 men as prisoners.
Farther to the south, Merritt’s cavalry prepared for their
mounted attack. Some of the troopers,
having lost their mounts during the campaign, had acquired mules to ride in
their stead. One rider remembered
"it took my mule just about four jumps to show he could outclass all
others. He laid back his ears and
frisked over [the] logs and flattened out like a jackrabbit....He switched his
tail and sailed right over among the rebs, landing near a rebel color-bearer of
the 12th Virginia Infantry...the color-bearer was a big brawny chap and he put
up a game fight, but that mule had some new side and posterior uppercuts that
put the reb out of the game."
Soon though the cavalrymen likewise overcame the
Southerner's stubborn resistance and captured two more generals (Eppa Hunton and Montgomery
Corse), although many of Anderson’s men
managed to escape through the woods. As these refugees fled the battlefield and
headed west toward Rice’s Depot, they had to scramble through the valley of Big
Sailor’s Creek. General Lee had ridden to a
knoll overlooking this creek and seeing this disorganized mob, exclaimed: “My God! Has the army been dissolved?”
What is collectively referred to as the Battle of Sailor’s
Creek was actually three separate engagements. The fight at the Hillsman farm
between Wright and Ewell,
Merritt versus Anderson
at the crossroads, and a third at Lockett’s farm two miles north from the first
two.
When the wagon train Gordon followed
became bogged down at the double bridge crossing over the confluence of Big and
Little Sailor’s Creek, his men were forced to protect them. Making a stand on the high ground around
Lockett’s, the Confederates awaited the arrival of Humphrey’s
II Corps just before dusk.
The fighting became intense as the battlelines came together
around the farmhouse. A Northern
infantryman recalled "we advanced to a White House [Locketts] on Sayler's
Creek, where we had an engagement and I found some protection behind the
house. I called Sergt. Percival's attention to what I thought a better
position near the hen coop, 15 feet distance, but he ordered me to remain where
I was. I thought I could get better aim
from the other position. I had been hit
just before reaching the house and wounded slightly. We had notified the occupants of the house to
adjourn to the cellar; bullets came pattering against it" (The house still stands with evidence of the
fighting visible). As the sound of fighting echoed from the south, the Federal
infantry gradually pushed the Southerners back into the low ground along the
creek. Using the wagons themselves as barricades, Gordon’s men fought
desperately. Only when a Federal flanking column was seen crossing further to
the north at Perkinson’s sawmill, did the Confederates retreat up the opposite
slope. Nightfall brought an end to the fighting with the spoils being 1,700
prisoners and over 200 wagons for Humphreys’
men.
It would once again be another night march for veterans of
the Army of Northern Virginia. The remainder of Gordon’s
Corps would trudge on to High Bridge, crossing the Appomattox as they headed
down the railroad for Farmville.
Those remnants that escaped disaster at the other two fights
were placed in command of Major General William Mahone
who likewise crossed on the gigantic railroad bridge. Lee
followed Longstreet’s troops and Fitz Lee’s cavalry along the road running south of the
river into the town, arriving there in the early morning hours of the 7th. At
this point they would find the long awaited subsistence, several train loads
containing over 80,000 rations of meal and 40,000 of bread to be exact.
Not long after his men began receiving their allowance and
started preparing their meals, the popping of carbine fire was heard to the
east: Federal cavalry were approaching
the outskirts of town. The Confederates quickly closed up the boxcars and sent
the trains westward down the rail line to Pamplin’s Depot. They would have to
get their rations elsewhere and at another time, the most likely place being
Appomattox Station thirty miles away. By 1:30 p. m., the Federals had gained
control of Farmville as Lee’s army retreated to the north side of the
Appomattox.
CIVIL WAR WEEK
CONTINUES ON PILLAR TO POST BLOG TOMORROW:
THE CIVIL WAR ART OF KEITH ROCCO
From camp
to battlefield, Keith Rocco’s 21st century paintings evoke the
drama, emotion and action of the Civil War.
In his book, 24 color vignettes and additional artwork, including many
published for the first time, tell the story of the war from the perspective of
the soldiers who fought it,
Keith
Rocco’s art bridges the gap from the Civil War until now, allowing viewers to
become a part of the experience.
Obtain a
copy via:
http://www.keithrocco.com/
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