On April 8, 1865, Confederate artillery under Gen. R. Lindsay Walker engaged Union cavalry commanded by Gen. George A. Custer near Appomattox Station, a depot on the South Side Railroad and a vital Confederate rail link between Petersburg and Lynchburg, Virginia. Retreating westward after the fall of Richmond and Petersburg, Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia raced to reach the station before Union forces, where supplies including uniforms, blankets, equipment, ordnance, medical supplies, and food awaited, and Lee planned to continue on to join Gen. Joseph Johnston in North Carolina. Custer's cavalry arrived first, and the sudden Union attack led Walker's artillery crews to take up muskets and fire toward the station. After several failed assaults, Custer's brigades overran the Confederate position and captured more than two dozen cannon, 150 to 200 wagons, and about 1,000 prisoners. Most of the Confederate artillery withdrew north to Oakville, and some 20 cannon reached Lynchburg. Early the next morning, Lee made one more attempt to open the road west, but after initial success Union infantry arrived that afternoon to stabilize the Federal line. Surrounded, Lee surrendered his army that afternoon to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Wilmer McLean's House, now part of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.