Battle of Sailor's Creek

— Lee's Retreat —

Here, around the home of James S. Lockett, desperate fighting occurred near sundown on April 6, 1865, when the Union corps commanded by Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys almost overwhelmed Gen. John B. Gordon's Confederate corps. The house, just across the road, still bears the scars of battle.

Gordon's corps, which served as the rear guard for the Army of Northern Virginia, also protected the Confederate wagon train. To avoid the fighting near the Hillsman House, the train was rerouted first to the northwest and then south on this road. At the bottom of this hill, where double bridges crossed Little Sailor's Creek and Big Sailor's Creek, the wagon train bogged down. Humphreys first drove Gordon from his position here then pressed him across the creek. By the end of the battle, as the sun was setting, the Confederates had lost some 1,700 men - most of them as prisoners - to the Federals' 536. The remnant of Gordon's corps continued its march to Farmville, but about 300 wagons and seventy ambulances fell into Union hands.

After the fighting ended for the night, the Lockett House became a field hospital.

Gen. Robert E. Lee, after witnessing the rout of his army here at the Hillsman House and at the Marshall Farm with eight generals and about 7,700 men captured, exclaimed, "My God! Has the army been dissolved?"

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Show me all markers in:  Rice, VA  |  Prince Edward County  |  23966  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

Sailor's Creek
Lockett House
Double Bridges
Double Bridges
Battle of Sailors (Sayler's) Creek
Hillsman House
Overton / Hillsman House
Crossing Little Sailor's Creek
Holt's Corner
Holt's Corner

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