the capture of Confederate supply trains at Appomattox Station, a mile from the county courthouse, determined that Lee would have to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Appomattox Court House (1865 Michler map)
the capture of Confederate supply trains at Appomattox Station, a mile from the county courthouse, determined that Lee would have to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Appomattox Court House (1865 Michler map)
When General Robert E. Lee ordered the Confederate Army to abandon Petersburg, he tried to march southwest in order to join the remnant of the Confederate Army of Tennessee in North Carolina under General Joseph E. Johnston.
Lee was unable to follow the South Side Railroad due west towards Burkeville Junction, before turning south on the Richmond and Danville Railroad Lynchburg. The Union cavalry and infantry units controlled the rail corridor at Sutherland Station on April 2, 1865, after the Battle of Five Forks. Instead, Lee chose to retreat from Petersburg on the opposite (north) side of the Appomattox River, moving west through Chesterfield rather than Dinwiddie county.
Using the Apomattox River as a barrier and moving on dirt roads in Chesterfield County left Lee with limited supply capacity. Lee's wagon train trailed behind the infantry with supplies, but Union cavalry destroyed much of it.
To feed his army, Lee aimed for Amelia Courthouse, He expected to receive reinforcements and food from Richmond via the railroad corridor. His retreating army crossed to the south side of the river into Amelia County at Goodes Bridge (modern Route 360) and near the Genito Bridge upstream, though the bridge itself had been destroyed by high water. To Lee's disappointment, he found ordinance for further fighting at Amelia Court House, but no food for the hungry, tired troops.1
Worse, Lee discovered the Union troops had blocked his route south on the Richmond and Danville Railroad corridor, by building fortifications across the rail line at Jetersville. Lee set off again cross-country, heading west towards Lynchburg and seeking a supply train somewhere on the South Side Railroad. He got to Rice's Depot on the South Side Railroad, though 20% of his army was captured or dissolved on the way at Sailor's Creek and in other engagements.2
Lee then headed west to Farmville, crossing the Appomattox River on High Bridge. His rear guard burned three spans to block Union forces from crossing the river, which was running too high to ford. Union forces tore down a fourth span to save the bridge, but relied upon an intact wagon bridge at the base of the High Bridge to cross the river.3
Confederates burned three spans of the High Bridge crossing the Appomattox River, and Union forces removed a fourth to save the bridge
Source: Smithsonian Institution, Plate 98. High Bridge, across the Appomattox (Gardner's Photographic Sketchbook of the War, Vol. II)
Union attacks forced him to move west from Farmville, with Lee paralleling the South Side Railroad until he lost the race to the trainloads of supplies waiting for him at Appomattox Station.
The South Side Railroad had bypassed the county seat in Appomattox County, just as the main line of the Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Northern Virginia bypassed the county seats of Fairfax, Prince William, and Fauquier counties. Key steps that led to Lee's final surrender was the Union capture of the Confederate supply trains at Appomattox Station and blocking his path towards the railroad further west. General Lee recognized he could not feed his troops, abandoned his "not yet" response, and surrendered to General Grant.
the Union Army captured the supplies on the South Side Railroad, then surrounded the Army of Northern Virginia
Source: Library of Congress, Central Virginia: showing Lieut. Gen'l. U.S. Grant's campaign and marches of the armies under his command in 1864-5 (US War Department. Engineer Bureau, between 1864 and 1869)