Confederate Artillery Position

Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia began retreating west from Richmond and Petersburg on April 3, 1865, with about 250 cannon. Two days later at Amelia Court House, about a hundred of the least effective pieces were removed from the army and placed under Gen. Reuben L. Walker, who was ordered to march north of the main army and west toward Lynchburg as Lee hoped to reach North Carolina and join Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Late on the afternoon of April 8, Walker’s column and Lee’s army were not far apart when Walker’s artillerymen stopped along the road here to Appomattox Station to rest and cook rations. At about 4 P.M., Union Gen. George A. Custer’s troopers attacked. Part of Walker’s command escaped to Lynchburg with 21 cannon, and another part took 54 artillery pieces to Oakville, five miles north. Walker made a stout defense with about 30 cannon before his position was overrun. At about 8 P.M., Custer launched a final assault with all of his brigades and captured the remaining cannon. The French Creole gunners of the Donaldsonville Louisiana Artillery muttered, “Tout perdu” (“All is lost”), and Confederate artillery Capt. William G. McCabe wrote, “Enemy attacked us in park. … Disgraceful panic. … Saw a captain of art’y behind a stump on his knees.” One hundred cannon were effectively eliminated from Lee’s army.

Appomattox, Virginia · United States