At this location during the Appomattox Campaign, Confederate Gen. R. Lindsay Walker formed a crescent of artillery that repulsed three charges by Union Gen. George Custer's cavalry division, but around 8 p.m. on April 8, 1865, Custer's fourth charge broke through and blocked the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road, Gen. Robert E. Lee's line of retreat. Seven days after the fall of Petersburg, Lee surrendered his army. Lee had hoped to continue fighting by linking his troops with Gen. Joseph Johnston's army in North Carolina. On April 4, Lee moved from Richmond, Petersburg, and Bermuda Hundred to concentrate about 35 miles west at Amelia Court House, intending to move south on the Richmond-Danville Railroad to North Carolina. On April 5, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant placed men south of Lee at Jetersville to block that move. The next day, Grant captured a portion of Lee's army at the Battle of Sailor's Creek. On April 7, Grant's cavalry drove Lee's army north out of Farmville and across the Appomattox River. Lee's men made a stubborn stand near Cumberland Church, then began a night march toward Appomattox Station, about a mile south of this location, setting up the surrender events.