Near Nottoway Court House on 23 June 1864, Confederate Maj. Gen. W. H. F. "Rooney" Lee placed his cavalry between the Union forces of August V. Kautz and James H. Wilson as they rode toward Burkeville, provoking a fight that Wilson called one of the hottest of the war. On 5 April 1865, U. S. Grant passed by here with part of his army while pursuing Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and here he learned that Lt. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was at Jetersville, blocking Lee's route south and driving him west toward Farmville and then Appomattox Court House.