Howard - The road to appomattox

The Road To

Appomattox

Great Battlefields of theCivil War

By

Blair Howard

Copyright 2015 Blair Howard

Published by Blair Howard atSmashwords

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April 3rd-12th, 1865

The Appomattox Court House NationalHistoric Park is in south central Virginia 92 miles west ofRichmond and 18 miles east of Lynchburg on VA Highway 24. The parkis three miles northeast of the town of Appomattox, which islocated on U.S. Highway 460.

After the fall of Petersburg andRichmond on April 2nd, 1865, General Robert E. Lee headed westtoward Amelia Court House along the long road that would leadeventually to Appomattox Court House.

The divisions under the commands ofGenerals Pickett and Heth, along with Lieutenant General AndersonsCorps (of which only Bushrod Johnsons division remained), and mostof Lees cavalry corps were cut off from Lee after the Battle ofFive Forks. They would have to cross the Appomattox River atBevills Bridge several miles to the west in order to eventuallyjoin with General Lee at Amelia Court House.

General A.P. Hills men joined withGeneral Longstreets Corps, crossed the Appomattox, and then theytoo headed west. Major General John Gordons Second Corps followedon behind, acting as the Confederate rear guard. General Mahoneabandoned his position in front of the Army of the James at BermudaHundred and followed Lee. General Ewells two Confederate divisionsleft Richmond later that evening, the 2nd of April, and they tooheaded west toward Amelia Court House, leaving the Confederatecapital to its Federal conquerors. As Lee said, it was a sadbusiness.

Confederate General Mahone

By the evening of April 3rd, thingsmust have seemed a little brighter for Lee and his officers. AmeliaCourt House and fresh supplies were not far away. Henry Heth withhis division had managed to cross the river and join up with themain body of the retreating Confederate army. General Anderson wasclose to Bevills Bridge and had been joined by General Pickett. Bynightfall General Longstreet and his corps, after a march of morethan 25 miles, had reached Goodes Bridge on the Appomattox and hadalready transferred two divisions under the command of GeneralsField and Wilcox across the river. Longstreet held Goodes Bridgeuntil General Gordon was able to make the crossing, and thenGordon, in turn, held it until General Mahone arrived. Mahone,taking his turn, would hold the bridge for General Ewell. Leesretreat from Petersburg and Richmond was turning into a successfuland coordinated withdrawal.

General Grant

On the morning of April 3rd, GeneralGrant gave orders to General Weitzel to invest Richmond, and thenwaited to confer with President Lincoln later that day. In themeantime he sent General Meade with three army corps, the II, V,and VI, westward after General Sheridan in pursuit of GeneralLee.

By 8 oclock on the morning of April4th, General Lee had joined with Longstreet and the two generalsarrived at Amelia Court House with their advance guard by 8:30.Soon, with units of his army arriving from all directions, Leesforce numbered more than 30,000 men, and they were all hungry.Unfortunately, by some quirk of communications, the 350,000 rationsLee had ordered and was expecting to find waiting for him at AmeliaCourt House had gone astray. Once again his army was introuble.

Robert E. Lee

Lee sent an urgent message to Danvillerequesting that 200,000 rations be shipped to him immediately. Inthe meantime, he sent his men off into the countryside to foragefor whatever food they could find. It was a sad day for the Army ofNorthern Virginia. Most of the men had given their all, and thisfinal blow was too much for many of them to handle; soon they weredeserting in ever-increasing numbers. Most of Lees men, however,had grown used to the constant setbacks that had beset them formore than a year and accepted the new situation with good grace. Asalways, a loud hurrah went up whenever the gentle commander of theonce-great Confederate army rode by.

All through the night of April 4th,Lee and his men waited for the foraging wagons to return. It was amiserable time, desperately cold as the rain and the wind blewthrough the Confederate camp. The lights in Lees tent burned intothe early hours of the morning of April 5th as he and his generalsexamined the situation and tried to decide what to donext.

The wagons returned, bringing littlewith them. The land that had been so good to the Confederate causehad, at last, nothing left to give. Lees last hope now was thatsupplies would arrive soon from Danville. And it was still rainingwhen General Mahone and his men marched into Amelia Court Houselater that morning.

As soon as Mahone arrived,he made his way straight to General Lee to report and was amazed tofind Lee in full dress uniform, including his golden spurs andfamous Maryland Sword. It seemed to Mahone that Lee had perhapshad some sort of premonition of death or disaster and that hewanted to be found at his very best: Hewas wearing all his best clothes. It impressed me that heanticipated some accident to himself and desired to be found inthat dress. Could it really have beenthat Lee already knew the end was at hand? Maybe, but if so henever admitted it.

There was nothing for Lee to do nowbut to head southwest along the Richmond & Danville Railroadtracks. So, everything that could be was loaded onto the wagons,what little was left was burned, and then the long column moved outfrom Amelia Court House. General Longstreets Corps led the way,followed by General Mahone, then General Anderson, General Ewell,General Custis Lee, and General Kershaw. General Gordon, onceagain, brought up the rear. In order that the army might make thebest possible time, the wagons were ordered to move south towardDanville by a separate, parallel road.