Battle of High Bridge The Battle of High Bridge was fought on April 6 – 7 , 1865 , near the end of the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War . On April 6 , the Confederate cavalry fought stubbornly to secure the Appomattox River bridges . On April 7 , elements of the Union II Corps came up against Lt . Gen . James Longstreet ' s rear guard attempting to fire the High Bridge and wagon bridge . Union forces were able to save the wagon bridge over which the II Corps crossed in pursuit of Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s army . Failure to destroy this bridge enabled Union forces to catch up with the Confederates at Farmville . Background . High Bridge , long and high , was the crossing of the South Side Railroad over the Appomattox River and its flood plain , northeast of Farmville , Virginia . A wooden bridge for wagons was located below the railroad bridge . During the retreat of Confederate Gen . Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia , the Confderates had moved north of the river , except for a rear guard provided by Longstreet ' s Corps at Rice ' s Station on the southern bank . The bridges had to be protected and then destroyed to delay the pursuit of the Union Army under Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant . On April 6 , Longstreet dispatched 1 , 200 Confederate cavalry under Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Rosser to protect the bridges from Union raiders . Union Maj . Gen . Edward O . C . Ord , commanding the Army of the James , sent about 900 men under Bvt . Brig . Gen . Theodore Read ( Ord ' s chief of staff ) to take the bridge . This force consisted of the 123rd Ohio Infantry and the 54th Pennsylvania Infantry , commanded by Lt . Col . Horace Kellogg of the 123rd , and three companies ( 80 troopers ) of the 4th Massachusetts Cavalry under Col . Francis Washburn . The cavalry reached the bridge before the main Confederate force , chased away some poorly armed home guards , and secured the south end of the bridge . Battle . While Washburn prepared to set fire to the bridge , three brigades of Confederate cavalrymen arrived and conducted a dismounted attack against the Union infantry , which was waiting near the Watson farmhouse , about half mile to the south . Hearing sounds of battle , Washburn and his men rejoined the infantry , and unaware that he was facing two divisions of cavalry , Read ordered a mounted charge by the 4th Massachusetts . The ferocious charge forced through the Confederate line of Brig . Gen . Thomas T . Munford and dissolved into hand - to - hand combat . Read exchanged gunfire with Confederate James Dearing during the fighting and was killed . Dearing was mortally wounded and died on April 22 . ( Dearing is often cited as the last Confederate general to die in the war , but his appointment to brigadier general in April 1864 was never confirmed . ) Washburn was also mortally wounded . The Confederates counterattacked and separated the cavalry from their supporting infantry . After another attack , the Union troopers were surrounded , and almost all were killed , wounded , or captured . Col . Rubin Boston of the 6th Virginia Cavalry was killed in the attack . Commanding Officers : Union : Confederate : Army of Northern Virginia Cavalry Corps : The Confederate Second Corps , under Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon , escaped from their defeat at the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek and crossed the High Bridge to the north side of the river while Maj . Gen . William Mahone ' s division secured the bridge . The rest of Lee ' s army moved on to Farmville and a rendezvous with trains of rations . Early on April 7 , while Mahone ' s men were attempting to fire the High Bridge and wagon bridge , the Union II Corps under Maj . Gen . Andrew A . Humphreys arrived on the scene . The division of Brig . Gen . Francis C . Barlow , including the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment , charged the burning structure and saved a large section of the railroad bridge , preventing major damage . They crossed the lower wagon bridge to move on Lee ' s flank and forced the hungry Confederates to resume their retreat before re - provisioning themselves . Aftermath . Together , the battles at High Bridge were tactically inconclusive , despite the 847 Union casualties ( including 800 captured ) versus only about 100 Confederate , but Lee was forced to continue his march to the west under pressure , depriving his men the opportunity to eat the Farmville rations they had waited so long to receive . Their next stop would be Appomattox Station , west , where a ration train was waiting . On the night of April 7 , Lee received from Grant a letter proposing that the Army of Northern Virginia should surrender . Lee demurred , retaining one last hope that his army could get to Appomattox Station before he was trapped . He returned a noncommittal letter asking about the surrender terms " Unconditional Surrender " Grant might propose .