Namozine Church

Background

The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, often called the Siege of Petersburg, stretched across 292 days and forced Union commander Ulysses S. Grant into a grinding contest of trenches and attrition. His aim was to wear down the smaller Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, choke off its supplies and supply routes into Petersburg and Richmond, and stretch the Confederate defensive lines past the point where the shrinking, outnumbered force could hold them. The Battle of Hatcher's Run, fought February 5 through 7, 1865, pushed the opposing lines out by another four miles, leaving Lee with barely any reserves once he had stretched his men to cover the longer front. Lee understood he would soon need to pull some or all of his army away from the Petersburg and Richmond

Aftermath

The fighting continued on April 4, 1865, with skirmishes breaking out at Tabernacle Church, also called Beaver Pond Creek, and at Amelia Court House. At the same time, Sheridan's men had taken up positions at Jetersville and Burkeville, Virginia, cutting off Lee's path to the Richmond and Danville Railroad as well as any direct southwestward route. Lee had counted on locating a supply train waiting at Amelia Court House, thirty-nine miles southwest of Richmond, but upon reaching the town that same day, his troops discovered the train held nothing but ordnance, ammunition, caissons, and harnesses, no food. Foraging attempts failed to produce supplies, and though some historians point instead to delays in bringing forward a pontoon bridge needed to cross rivers swollen by rain, the outcome was the same: Lee had no choice but to push his starving army forward again, this time toward Farmville in search of rations.

The next day, April 5, Sheridan directed Crook to dispatch cavalry north of Jetersville to scout the Union left. Somewhere between four and seven miles from Jetersville, Brig. Gen. Henry E. Davies Jr. struck a Confederate wagon train, destroying roughly two hundred wagons and capturing no fewer than three hundred prisoners. Confederate horsemen pursued Davies' rear guard through Amelia Springs in a running fight, but Davies managed to join up with reinforcements near Jetersville, allowing him to hold onto his captives while keeping casualties down.

By the morning of April 6, Meade still believed the Confederate army sat concentrated around Amelia Court House. Even though both Grant and Sheridan suspected otherwise, Meade ordered the Army of the Potomac's infantry to march toward that town. It did not take long for Union troops to realize Lee's forces had already turned west, prompting a shift in the direction of pursuit. That afternoon, at what became known as the Battle of Sayler's Creek, or alternately Sailor's Creek, roughly a fifth of the Army of Northern Virginia's remaining men found themselves severed from the main Confederate force. Most were captured, though many died in the fighting. Casualties and captures totaled around 8,000, a group that included Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell along with eight other generals, and this figure represented close to one-sixth of all the men who had marched out of Richmond and Petersburg under Lee.

Roughly five more minor engagements followed across the next three days as the Confederate army steadily disintegrated and Union forces closed in from all sides. Finally, on April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered his army to Grant at Appomattox Court House, a location some ninety miles west of Richmond.