Cumberland Church

Aftermath

At five o'clock in the afternoon on April 7, writing from Farmville, Grant sent word to Lee arguing that the past week's events left no doubt about the futility of continued fighting by the Army of Northern Virginia. He said he felt this strongly enough that he considered it his own obligation to spare further bloodshed by requesting the surrender of that Confederate force. Brigadier General Seth Williams, serving as Grant's Adjutant-General, carried this note to be passed through the lines via Humphreys's staff around half past eight that evening.

When Lee read the message, he turned to Longstreet, who responded simply, "Not yet." Lee's written reply pushed back against Grant's assessment of his prospects, though he too expressed a wish to avoid needless slaughter, and he asked what terms Grant might propose for surrender. This response reached Union lines roughly an hour later, and Williams carried it back to Farmville by a roundabout path across High Bridge.

That night the VI Corps passed through Farmville, setting bonfires and cheering as they marched by the hotel serving as Grant's headquarters. They crossed the Appomattox on a footbridge just constructed for the purpose, though their artillery and wagons had to wait for a pontoon bridge lent by the XXIV Corps before making the crossing; afterward they set up camp on the river's north side. Meanwhile the XXIV Corps remained on the southern bank, camping near Farmville's western edge. Because General Birney had taken on a new assignment near Petersburg, leading the freshly organized Division of Fort Powhatan, City Point and Wilson's Wharf, his division's second and third brigades were folded into Gibbon's XXIV Corps. The first brigade from that division would not rejoin the Army of the James until April 10.

Elsewhere, Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie led his modest cavalry division from Burkeville toward Prince Edward Court House, aiming to sever the route to Farmville along with the Richmond and Danville Railroad near Keysville. His men clashed briefly with outpost forces and seized 38 prisoners. By three in the afternoon, the divisions of Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer and Brigadier General Thomas Devins started reaching Prince Edward Court House, having come from the Sailor's Creek battlefield. Following dinner, cavalry commander Major General Philip Sheridan directed them westward, and they eventually settled into camp about seven miles from both Farmville and Prospect Station. The V Corps under Brigadier General Charles Griffin reached Prince Edward Court House around 7:30 that evening and made camp on the Hampden-Sydney College grounds.

As Lee weighed his response to Grant, the Confederate wagon trains kept struggling westward along roads turned to mud by rain and heavy traffic, a situation that killed several mule teams and forced the burning of wagons too mired to continue. Once the trains reached the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road, travel eased considerably. Separately, Brigadier General Reuben Lindsay Walker had been guiding the reserve artillery on its own path apart from the main army, having passed through Cumberland Court House the day before. Upon learning of the disaster at Sailor's Creek and the retreat from Farmville, he turned north onto the Buckingham Plank Road, passing through Curdsville around midday before angling southwest toward New Store, where he halted for the night alongside the wagon and hospital trains that had also come from Farmville.

Lee recognized that another night march, this time from Cumberland Church, was necessary if his army hoped to outpace Union forces, secure supplies at Appomattox Station, and perhaps still reach Danville by way of Campbell Court House and Pittsylvania County. Longstreet's corps, traveling with Lee, took the Piedmont Coal Mine Road, also called the Buckingham Plank Road, through Curdsville and onto a back route toward New Store, shielding the final wagon train as it pulled back from Cumberland Church. Gordon's corps, with Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry trailing behind, followed the more direct Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road toward the same destination. Around three that afternoon, Humphreys relayed word to Meade that captured Confederates had revealed Lynchburg as the army's target, giving Meade and Sheridan a clear picture of Lee's intentions. That night near Cumberland Church, Humphreys's soldiers rested even as Lee's army slipped away.