# The Civil War/The Campaign to Appomattox, Va.

THE CAMPAIGN TO APPOMATTOX
APRIL 2 TO APRIL 9, 1865
General Lee had ordered his army to move as quickly as possible back to Amelia Court House as he had ordered two days rations and folage to be sent there as his men and horses had not eaten in almost two days.
The famished regiments began to march into Amelia Court House on April 4 and General Lee rode in with Longstreet's advance about 8:30 a. m. and not a single ration was there. Hour after hour famished regiments marched in as planned. General Wilcox and his men arrived at noon, followed sometime later by General Heath, General Mahone, and General Goode's regiments. By late afternoon General Ewell arrived, then the cavalry under General Anderson and Fitzhugh Lee arrived. It was their job to hold General Sheridan off of the troops and burn the bridges after the last unit was across all waterways.
On April 5 General Mahone sent out commissary wagons to comb the countryside for food and folage; the wagons returned empty as the country had nothing to give after helping to feed the army for the past four years.
General Mahone went straight to General Lee with the bad news, General Lee was "in tears as he could no longer feed his men".
General Lee ordered all troops to form ranks and they would move south to Danville and hope to join General Joe E. Johnston's army of Tennessee at the North Carolina border, and be in better shape to give fight. He made a full apology to the troops because of no rations and had wired Danville to have 200,000 rations waiting for his men.
The men all agreed they could wait another day for food and rallied behind General Lee and headed south.
Eight miles south of Amelia Court House at Jetersville, Virginia they found General Sheridan's dismounted cavalry behind earthworks placed squarely across their line of march. This ended all hopes of rations or escape; his only alternative was to go west to Farmville, on to Appomattox, as his men were in no shape to fight an all-out battle.
The Federal cavalry of General Sheridan's cut gaps in the retreating line of men at every opportunity; 6,000 Confederate troops and nine Generals were taken in these disasters at Sayler's ​Creek and Little Saylers. General Lee and General Longstreet rode back along the lines to see for themselves what was happening. They found that hundreds of their wagons had been captured and set ablaze and that General Ewell's regiment had been hit in front by Sheriman's cavalry and in back by General Wheaton's infantry and had taken General Ewell and most of his regiment prisoners along with General Kershaw and his entire regiment.
What to do now with only half of an army left–no rations, no artillery pieces and no wagon trains left was the greatest problem General Lee had ever faced. He asked that they push on to Farmville. They arrived on April 7 and found some rations there at the station, but before they could eat they found that Federal troops were bearing down, the high bridge over which they had to cross the Appomattox River had accidentally been left intact by General Mahone after the last troops had crossed on the evening before. The ration train was sent off towards Lynchburg without everyone getting fed as it would fall into Federal hands also.
On the 7th at dark a letter from General Grant reached General Lee asking him to surrender the remains of his army to avoid further bloodshed. General Longstreet said "not yet" and Lee agreed, so that night Lee's army was pushed on towards Appomattox Station twenty-two miles west of Farmville.
They marched all that night and the next day at dark they were two miles from Appomattox Court House. At the station was a trainload of rations if Lee could beat Sheridan's cavalry to them.
Another letter came from General Grant. His terms of surrender would be simple. "Peace being my great desire" his only condition was that the men surrender, take their parole and return to their homes, not to bear arms again. This was handed to General Lee at 9:00 p. m. on the 8th of April.
General Lee did not reply at once, then he found out that General Sheridan had beat him to the Station at Appomattox and stood squarely between the Confederate army and the much needed rations at the Station. Lee made a move during the night of April 8 to find out if infantry was there also to hold the rations. He sent General Gordon along with Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry to hit Sheridan and try to recapture the train. They were beaten back as Sheridan was indeed there in force. They returned back to General Lee and told him how hopeless their cause was.
​At 8:30 a. m. on April 9 General Lee called his generals to him and asked them what he should do; they all agreed that the choice of surrender was all that was left.
General Lee mounted his horse Traveller, accompanied by Colonel Marshall and Sergeant G. W. Tucker and under a white flag rode to the McLean House, met with General Grant and arranged the terms of surrender. Each signed the agreement and General Lee rode back to his men and told them the war was over and that they would be fed, given a parole and allowed to return to their homes. Any one who owned a horse could take it home to do their farm work with.
General Lee stood in his tent and received the throngs of those who came to make their farewells. On April 10 he made a short farewell speech to his famed Army of Northern Virginia. They stacked their arms and left for their homes.
What was left of the 42nd Infantry Division, as most of them were taken prisoner along with General Ewell on April 6 at Sayler's Creek, were with General Lee at Appomattox Court House. They stacked arms and received their parole, were sent to Clover Hill, Virginia on the 10th and left for home.