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Seventy-two
hours before General Lee surrendered at Appomattox, April 1865, he lost over
half his army in the war’s last major Virginia battle at Sayler’s Creek. Total Confederate losses were
estimated at 8,000 with 6,000 taken prisoner---the largest number of men ever to
surrender in a single action on this continent. Five generals and numerous
high-ranking officers were captured. As the stragglers were rejoining the main
force, Lee looked around and exclaimed, “My God! Has the army dissolved?”
What caused such a debacle? A combination of
factors bedeviled Lee’s ragged and starving army as they fled Petersburg and
Richmond. Heavy spring rains caused frequent rerouting and mudsoaked roads were
often impassable for the wagons, resulting in loss of communication. The army
was heading for Amelia Court House where they hoped to be reprovisioned. When
supplies did not arrive, a day was wasted on a fruitless search for food. This
gave Union forces time to catch up.
On April 6, a third of Lee’s army under
General Anderson and General Ewell bogged down---literally---in the swampy
bottom land of Sayler’s Creek and were overtaken by Federal troops under General
Wright. Though the Richmond clerks, sailors and artillerymen who made up the
Confederate force repulsed the first attack, they came under the artillery
batteries and were stopped. The entire force surrendered.
The wagon column under General Gordon that
the Confederates were trying to salvage had already crossed the creek but here,
too, they were stopped by a numerically superior Union force commanded by
General George Armstrong Custer. While General Gordon and a few men escaped,
the wagons and almost all of Lee’s dwindling supplies were lost along with
three-fourths of the men. The defeat of the Confederate army at Sayler’s Creek
was just three days before Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia at
Appomattox Court House (see selection).
Today there is an auto route at Sayler’s
Creek Battlefield Historical State Park. Overlooking the battlefield is
Hillsman House (not open to the public) which was used as a field hospital by
both armies. Interpretive signs and audio programs reveal details of this
climactic encounter. This state park is open Memorial Day through Labor Day at
no charge.
Directions: From I-95 just to the south of
Richmond, take Route 360 west. Just past Jetersville, turn right on Route
307. Make another right on Route 617 and head north. The battlefield
auto route markers are at intervals along Route 617.
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Once you have explored nature's handiwork
beneath the hills of Luray, you can well imagine the awe Andrew Campbell
and Benton Stebbins felt in 1878 when they discovered the labyrinth. With two
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TRAVEL
WRITERS WANTED
FREE
trial lesson in new
"WRITING TO
PUBLISH WORKSHOP."
Send us
an
email for details. Publication
is guaranteed for those
accepted in program. Instructor is
former president of the Society of
American Travel Writers.
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