Sailor’s Creek * The Battle * Touring the Battlefield * The Armies
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Sailor’s Creek was made up of three separate actions. As Lee’s army struggled along muddy, flooded roads to reach hoped-for supplies at Farmville it became separated into its different commands.
Lee’s Army is Divided
Longstreet’s First Corps, combined with the Third Corps since A.P. Hill’s death at Petersburg four days before, was in the lead, and would escape the battle. Following was Richard Anderson’s much smaller Fourth Corps. Next was Richard Ewell’s Corps, many of whom were government clerks and sailors from the Confederate navy’s James River squadron who had destroyed their ships and suddenly became infantrymen. Ewell was encumbered by the army’s slow moving wagon trains. Bringing up the rear was Gordons Second Corps.
Around noon Anderson’s men were attacked by a Union cavalry brigade at Holt’s Crossroads. Anderson formed up his men successfully fought off the attack, but during that time Longstreet continued to march ahead, and a dangerous gap opened in the Confederate column.
Two miles further south at Marshall’s Crossfoads (about a thousand feet southwest of the current Visitor Center) Anderson was attacked again by Union cavalry. This time it was in division strength, under George Custer. While Anderson was forced to halt and deploy again, pinned into place, two more Union cavalry divisions under George Crook and Thomas Devin came up to add to the attack.
Ewell’s Corps was blocked behind Anderson and threatened by advancing Union infantry from Wright’s Sixth Corps. He ordered the cumbersom supply wagons and ambulances to divert northwest up the Jamestown Road, hoping they could avoid the developing battle by a wide detour. The wagons were followed by Gordon’s Second Corps.
Richard Ewell’s Last Fight
Ewell crossed Sailor’s Creek and set up a defensive line on the high ground there, opening yet another gap between his men and Anderson’s. Wright’s Sixth Corps quickly followed, sending two divisions under Truman Seymour and Frank Wheaton in an attack across the creek. A Confederate counterattack under Stapleton Crutchfield drove Wright’s men back across the stream and ended in hand to hand fighting. Union artillery broke up the counterattack, killing Crutchfield. Wright quickly reformed his men and launched a second attack. This time it was successful. Ewell’s men, many in their first combat, were overwhelmed. Over 3,400 Confederates surrendered, including five generals: Seth M. Barton, Dudley M. DuBose, Joseph B. Kershaw, James P. Simms, and Robert E. Lee’s oldest son, George Washington Custis Lee.
Richard Anderson’s Corps
About a half mile to the south along the road Anderson’s two divisions under George Pickett and Bushrod Johnson took up defensive positions against the three divisions of Union cavalry and their quick-firing reapeaters. After resisting several attacks Anderson’s line broke and his men fled west in the direction where Longstreet had disappeared. Many escaped, but the fast moving cavalry surrounded and ran down the fleeing Confederates, capturing 2,600 men and four more generals: Theodore Brevard, Montgomery D. Corse, Eppa Hunton, and Richard Ewell himself.
John Gordon and the Wagons
Two miles to the northwest near the farm of James Lockett, Union forces caught up with the lumbering wagons. John Gordon had been fighting rearguard actions all day with the Union troops of William Humpreys’ Second Corps , including one at Deatonville where he had lost 400 men. Now, as the wagons jammed up trying to cross Big and Little Sailor’s Creeks on two bridges, Gordon was forced to form a defensive line to hold off Humphres’ men. But superior numbers and an attack by Nelson Miles’ Division forced the issue. Faced with being overwhelmed, Gordon ordered his men to abandon the wagons and retreat. Gordon lost 1,700 men captured in addition to 400 dead and wounded. Thirteen flags, 300 wagons, and 70 ambulances were captured.