Appomattox Court House – Grant’s Headquarters
The Battle of Appomattox Station wayside marker is at the park’s western edge in the Site of Grant’s Headquarters pull off. It is next to the Grant’s Pursuit orientation marker and the Battle of Appomattox Station wayside marker.
From the wayside marker:
Battle of Appomattox Station
April 8, 1865, 4-8 p.m.
One of the last battles of the Civil War took place one mile west of here. After capturing Confederate supplies, General George Custer’s cavalry charged through the woods into the cannon fire of Confederate General Reuben Lindsay Walker’s troops. Though unsupported by infantry, Walker’s men repulsed the first three charges, but Custer’s final assault captured 25 cannon, 200 wagons, and 1,000 prisoners. The Federals dispersed Walker’s artillery and secured the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road. By holding the high ground west of Appomattox Court House they blocked the road General Lee intended to use and force his surrender the next day.
From the captions to the photos on the lower left:
In April of 1865, 25-year-old Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer led more than 4,000 cavalry troopers of the Third Division of the Army of the Shenandoah. At Appomattox Station, his troops captured trains loaded with Confederate uniforms, blankets, equipment, ordnance, medical supplies, and – most importantly – food.
Brigadier General Reuben Lindsay Walker, age 37, commanded 100 artillery pieces of the Confederate reserve artillery. After making camp on April 8. Walker was shaving and his men were cooking their rations when Custer’s troopers unexpectedly arrived. Forming batteries into a semicircle, Walker’s men began firing. Eventually most of his artillery, including Walker fled north to Oakville where they buried their cannon and disbanded the next day.
From the captions to the photos in the center:
Described as “a splendid soldier,” Private William Davis of the Second Company of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, was wounded defending the battery’s flag which was captured by Private Bernard Shields of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry.
Twenty-nine-year-old First Lieutenant Willard Farrington of company L, 1st Vermont Cavalry, suffered a shell wound during the battle.
From the caption to the photo on the right:
Dartmouth College graduate Eri Woodbury, age 27, Adjutant of the 1st Vermont Cavalry.
Custer’s Division, as usual, went in on a charge. We had a thick piece of woods to get through to reach their artillery…. In this woods we received the most terrible fire of canister that ever I saw. It was getting dark and the woods were constantly lightened up with the flashing of their cannon and then that awful shrieking as the shell and canister came ploughing and tearing through the trees…. Suddenly I felt a blow and a numbing sustain across my breast, & found myself turning a double summer set (fault) off into the bushes…. Getting up I found where I was wounded: my fingers were completed knocked out and hanging over the back of the hand by a little shred of skin.
Eri Woodbury
Location
The wayside marker is at the Site of Grant’s Headquarters pull off on the west side of the park. The pull off is on the south site of Virginia Route 24 just over half a mile northeast of the US 460 interchange. (37°22’23.3″N 78°49’01.9″W)