Battle of Amelia Springs The Battle of Amelia Springs , Virginia was a minor engagement that occurred on April 5 , 1865 during the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War . It was followed by a second rear guard action near the same location on the night of April 5 , 1865 and morning of April 6 , 1865 during the Union Army pursuit of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia which was fleeing westward after the fall of Petersburg and Richmond , Virginia on April 2 , 1865 . The actions took place just prior to the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek ( sometimes shown as " Sailor ' s Creek " ) on April 6 , 1865 . That battle would be the last major engagement between the Union Army of the Potomac under the command of Maj . Gen . George G . Meade and the overall direction of Union General - in - Chief , Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , and the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of General Robert E . Lee ' s before that Confederate army ' s surrender at Appomattox Court House , Virginia on April 9 , 1865 . On April 5 , 1865 , Confederate cavalry under the command of Brig . Gen . Martin Gary , reinforced by cavalry from the divisions of Maj . Gen . Thomas L . Rosser and Brig . Gen Thomas T . Munford , which were under the overall command of Maj . Gen . Fitzhugh Lee , counterattacked a brigade of Union cavalry led by Brig . Gen . Henry E . Davies , Jr . . Davies ' s brigade was part of the division commanded by Maj . Gen . George Crook , which in turn was under the overall command of Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan . Davies ' s force was returning from a scout during which they burned Confederate wagons in the vicinity of Paineville , Virginia ( Paineville area of Amelia County , Virginia ) , about north of Jetersville , Virginia . The wagons were carrying supplies and equipment for the Army of Northern Virginia . The running fight after the Painesville action started north of Amelia Springs and continued through Amelia Springs almost to Jetersville , Virginia on the South Side Railroad . Jetersville , which was southwest of Amelia Court House , Virginia where Lee ' s forces were concentrating , had been held by Sheridan ' s forces since the day before . The battle was inconclusive in that the Confederate forces had to return to Amelia Springs when Davies ' s troops were able to join with other Union forces as they approached Jetersville . During the night of April 5 , 1865 , Union Army divisions under the command of Brig . Gen . Nelson A . Miles and Maj . Gen . Gershom Mott fought a minor and inconclusive action against the Army of Northern Virginia rear guard commanded by Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon near Amelia Springs . Although casualties for both sides in both engagements have been stated to be light and about even at less than 250 combined , the Union commanders reported suffering 158 casualties . The Confederates presumably suffered fewer than 100 . In addition , Davies ' s men took over 300 Confederate prisoners in the Painesville action immediately preceding the counterattack which precipitated the running battle through and beyond Amelia Springs almost to Jetersville . Background . Overland campaign . In early May 1864 , Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , Union Army General - in - Chief , directed the Union Armies to make coordinated advances against Confederate forces on several fronts . Grant ordered the Army of the Potomac under Maj . Gen . George G . Meade to destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and take the Confederate capital of Richmond , Virginia . Grant accompanied Meade ' s army on the campaign which began on May 4 , 1864 . At the same time , the Union Army of the James under Maj . Gen . Benjamin Butler was directed to march on Richmond from south of the James River . Butler ' s plan was to move up the James River by boat , land at the lightly defended Bermuda Hundred Plantation near Richmond and cut the railroad lines between Petersburg and Richmond . Siege of Petersburg . After a series of bloody but inconclusive battles later known as the Overland Campaign , the Army of the Potomac had pushed the Army of Northern Virginia south from the Rapidan River and Rappahannock River line to the outskirts of Richmond . After the failure of the disastrous Union attack on the entrenched Confederates at the Battle of Cold Harbor on June 3 , 1864 , Grant directed the Army of the Potomac to break contact with the Confederate Army , cross the James River and attack the small Confederate force defending the important railroad center of Petersburg , Virginia , just to the south of Richmond . Union forces nearly overwhelmed this small force but the Confederates were soon reinforced and were able to repulse the Union attack . If Petersburg had fallen , the Confederates would have been unable to supply and hold Richmond , as later events showed . At this time , however , the small force of Confederate defenders held Petersburg against the poorly directed attack of Meade ' s ineffective subordinates until those defenders could be reinforced by Lee ' s army . Grant ' s brilliant tactical improvisation had been thwarted not only by a stout Confederate defense , but also mainly by the inability of subordinates to carry it out . Nonetheless , in mid - June 1864 , the Army of the Potomac had the Army of Northern Virginia in a position that required the Confederate army to defend Richmond and Petersburg or to see the Confederacy ' s capital and a key railroad center fall under Union control . The Army of the Potomac settled into a Siege of Petersburg which was to last until April 2 , 1865 . Throughout the siege , the Union forces conducted attacks and maneuvers which required the Confederates to spread their weakening army over longer and thinner lines . Finally , the far right western end of the Confederate line broke at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1 , 1865 . Confederate lines collapse . The Confederate Army had to hold Five Forks in order to protect the Southside Railroad , their last supply line . On April 1 , 1865 , at the end of the Siege of Petersburg , Union Army cavalry forces and V Corps infantry forces of the Army of the Potomac under the command of cavalry corps commander , Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan , defeated a large force of Confederates from the Army of Northern Virginia under the command of Maj . Gen . George Pickett at the Battle of Five Forks , Virginia at the western end of the Confederate lines . General Lee had sent this large force to the end of the line to prevent a suspected attempt by the Union forces to attack and turn this segment of the line in order to get behind the Confederate defenses in general . After sustaining about 800 casualties and losing over 5 , 000 men who were captured , the remaining Confederates retreated from the strategic Five Forks crossroads to Ford ' s Station or Ford ' s Meeting House on the Southside Railroad . On April 2 , 1865 , Grant ordered a general advance all along the Confederate lines , which broke in several places , leading to what is now known as the Fall of Petersburg or Breakthrough at Petersburg or occasionally the Third Battle of Petersburg . Four Confederate brigades stood west of Hatcher ' s Run and due east of Five Forks along White Oak Road where it is met by Claiborne Road . The attack against these brigades by II Corps of the Army of the Potomac under the command of Maj . Gen . Andrew A . Humphreys sent the Confederates into retreat to Sutherland ' s Station or Sutherland ' s Depot on the Southside Railroad . Confederate Maj . Gen . Henry Heth , who succeeded to corps command upon the death in action of Lt . Gen . A . P . Hill on April 1 , organized a defense with these brigades but left them under the command of Brig . Gen . John R . Cooke as Heth returned to Petersburg . In the ensuing Battle of Sutherland ' s Station advanced brigades of the Union infantry division commanded by Brig . Gen . Nelson A . Miles of Maj . Gen . Humphreys ' s corps attacked the hastily fortified positions of the Confederate brigades . The Union attackers initially were repulsed with heavy losses . After a second futile attempt to take the Confederate position by two Union brigades , Miles attacked again with his entire force in mid - afternoon and overwhelmed the Confederates . The Union victory at Sutherland ' s Station started with the collapse of the brigade of Brig . Gen . Samuel McGowan on the Confederate left flank . As a result of the Confederate defeat , the Southside Railroad , the Confederates ' last supply line , was cut and General Robert E . Lee ' s Army of Northern Virginia had to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and flee westward . Confederate army flight . Much of the Army of Northern Virginia as well as Confederate President Jefferson Davis and his cabinet , were able to escape from Petersburg and Richmond just in advance of the Union troops entering those cities on April 3 because Confederate rear guard forces , especially at Forts Gregg and Whitworth , and Fort Mahone and Sutherland ' s Station , fought desperate delaying actions on April 2 to give most of the Confederates a head start on Union Army pursuers . General Lee ' s ultimate intention was to proceed through Danville and then to unite with General Joseph E . Johnston ' s Confederate army , which was attempting to slow the advance of Maj . Gen . William T . Sherman ' s Union army in North Carolina . First , he planned to reunite the four columns of his army that left Petersburg and Richmond and to resupply at Amelia Court House , Virginia , southwest of Richmond . Lee ' s men left their positions in Petersburg and Richmond with only one day ' s rations . Lee expected to find a supply train of rations that he had ordered brought to Amelia Court House to meet the army at that location . Pursuit . While most of Lee ' s army had an effective one day head start on their flight , the advance cavalry and infantry corps of the Union Army under the command of Maj . Gen . Philip Sheridan were able to keep Lee ' s forces to their north by pursuing Lee on a parallel course to their south . Union cavalry harassed and skirmished with Confederate units almost from the outset of Lee ' s army ' s march from Petersburg . On April 3 , 1865 , advance units of the Union cavalry fought with rear guard Confederate cavalry at the Battle of Namozine Church . On April 4 , 1865 , the opposing forces skirmished at Tabernacle Church or Beaver Pond Creek and at Amelia Court House . Meanwhile , Sheridan ' s forces occupied Jetersville and Burkeville . Lee had hoped to find a supply train at Amelia Court House , Virginia , southwest of Richmond , but when he and his forces arrived there on April 4 , 1865 , he found that the train contained only ordnance , ammunition , caissons and harnesses . Lee sent out foraging parties , losing precious time in the process . Some historians have written that the primary cause of the delay at Amelia Court House was a delay in bringing up a pontoon bridge needed to cross rain - swollen rivers . In any event , this delay allowed even more Union troops to catch up to and to get ahead of his hungry , exhausted and declining force . Few supplies could be found in the depleted area near Amelia Court House . Lee had to order his hungry men to resume their march in the hope that they could find rations at Farmville , Virginia . By April 4 , Sheridan ' s Union forces had taken advanced positions at Burkeville and at Jetersville , which blocked Lee ' s access to the Richmond and Danville Railroad and to the direct route southwestward . On April 5 , 1865 , Sheridan ordered Crook to send cavalry patrols north of Jetersville to reconnoiter his left flank . At Crook ' s order , Union Brig . Gen . Henry E . Davies , Jr . took his brigade through Amelia Springs , Virginia and then swung north to the Paineville , Virginia area of Amelia County . About out of Jetersville , Davies attacked a Confederate army wagon train . His men destroyed the wagons , captured equipment and animals and took more than 300 and perhaps as many as 1 , 000 prisoners . According to some sources , some of these men were armed blacks in Confederate uniforms , the only known instance in Virginia of combat involving organized black Confederate soldiers . Some historians specifically reject the claim that these black men were trained and organized combat soldiers and described them simply as teamsters . In his brief account of this action in his biography of General Sheridan , General Davies made no mention of black troops . One of the items burned in the wagons was the war diary for the Army of Northern Virginia . Upon hearing about Davies ' s actions , General Lee dispatched two divisions of Maj . Gen . Fitzhugh Lee ' s cavalry , which joined with Brig . Gen . Martin Gary ' s cavalry brigade at Paineville , to pursue Davies . Together they engaged Davies ' s rear guard in a running combat for to Amelia Springs . The Confederates attacked Davies ' s forces in a mounted combat with drawn sabers , forcing his men to retreat . The Confederates chased Davies ' s force almost to Jetersville but when Davies ' s men linked up with other Union Army cavalry of Maj . Gen . Crook ' s main force , Davies was able to retain his prisoners , mules and cannon and the Confederates returned to Amelia Springs for the night . Confederate cavalry continued to skirmish with Union forces at Jetersville and Confederate infantry demonstrated during the afternoon of April 5 , 1865 . The apparent purpose of these actions , after Lee discovered that the road and railroad to Burkeville was blocked by Sheridan ' s forces at Jetersville , was to cover for the continuing movement of the Confederate army west toward Farmville . Lee ordered supplies sent to this location from Lynchburg . Second engagement , casualties . During the night of April 5 , 1865 and morning of April 6 , 1865 , General Lee began to march his army from Amelia Court House , through Amelia Springs , toward Farmville . Two Union Army divisions under the command of Brig . Gen , Nelson A . Miles and Maj . Gen . Gershom Mott of the corps commanded by Maj . Gen . Andrew A . Humphreys observed the movement on the night of April 5 and pursued the Confederates . The Confederate rear guard under the command of Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon held off the Union Army attack and continued the march west while the Union forces stopped to rest for the night . During the engagement , Maj . Gen . Mott was wounded and Brig . Gen . Regis de Trobriand took command of his division . Aftermath . The Union forces suffered between 116 and 158 casualties in the Amelia Springs engagements . Confederate casualties are unknown but have been presumed to be fewer , perhaps less than 100 . In addition , the Confederates suffered the loss of those soldiers and teamsters captured in the attack on the wagon train at Paineville . Maj . Gen . Meade thought that the Confederate army remained concentrated at Amelia Court House and , despite the suspicions of Grant and Sheridan that the Confederates had moved on , sent the Army of the Potomac infantry in the direction of Amelia Court House in the morning of April 6 , 1865 . The Union forces soon discovered that Lee had started moving west and changed their direction of march to continue their pursuit . In the afternoon of April 6 , 1865 , approximately one - fifth the remaining soldiers of the Army of Northern Virginia ( about 8 , 000 men , including Lt . Gen . Richard S . Ewell and eight other generals ) , about one - sixth of the number who had left Richmond and Petersburg , were cut off from the main body of Confederate troops at the Battle of Sayler ' s Creek ( or " Battle of Sailor ' s Creek " ) and most were captured . After about five more small engagements over the next three days , with the Army of Northern Virginia melting away , and Union forces surrounding them , General Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to General Grant on April 9 , 1865 at Appomattox Court House , Virginia , about west of Richmond . Battlefield Today . The former resort of Amelia Springs has disappeared . The battlefield property is heavily wooded , difficult to interpret , privately owned and apparently in little danger of development . References . The geographical co - ordinates of the location of the Amelia Springs roadside historical marker are 37° 20 . 023 ′ N , 78° 6 . 504 ′ W .