steadily lengthening system of earthworks
stretching more than 20 miles south from
Richmond to Petersburg. For months, they
held out as Union assaults failed to make
a lasting breach of the defenses. Then, on
April 1, Sheridan’s cavalry and Maj. Gen.
G.K. Warren’s V Corps poured through a
break in the Confederate lines at Five
Forks. The sudden Union surge threatened
the Southside Railroad, Lee’s last link with
supplies from the south, as well as Peters-
burg itself.
After previous Union victories, the Con-
federates had always managed to extend
or adjust their lines. After Five Forks, how-
ever, this was no longer possible. Lee
telegraphed President Jefferson Davis on
the morning of Sunday, April 2, “I see no
prospect of doing more than holding our
position here till night. I am not certain
that I can do that. If I can I shall withdraw
tonight north of the Appomattox. I advise
that all preparation be made for leaving
Richmond tonight.”
Lee’s fateful message reached Davis at
10:40 AM, when a courier found him
attending a service at St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church. Opening the message, Davis stood
up. Richmond socialite Sallie Brock Put-
nam heard whispers flying through the
congregation when the president “walked
rather unsteadily out of the church.” Soon,
the sexton moved among the pews, sum-
moning other government officials. Those
who remained worried about the mysteri-
ous but obviously dire news that had dri-
ven Davis out into the street. Their fears
were confirmed when the minister ended
the service with an announcement that Lt.
Gen. Richard S. Ewell, commander of the
Confederate troops at Richmond, was
ordering all of his men to report to duty as
soon as possible.
With the fall of Petersburg, Richmond
was doomed. Lee had to abandon the shel-
ter of his entrenchments and take his out-
numbered and outgunned army into the
open. In a dispatch sent to Richmond later
on April 2, Lee informed Davis that his
troops would leave Petersburg and Rich-
mond that night. Lee’s only chance for keep-
ing a Confederate army in the field was tounite his men with General Joseph E. John-
ston’s Army of the South in North Carolina.
Johnston commanded a hodgepodge of
survivors of the battered Army of Tennessee
as well as garrison troops and scattered field
commands drawn in from Georgia and the
Carolinas. This new army had lost the Bat-
tle of Bentonville in Johnston County,
North Carolina, on March 21. But, John-
ston’s force was still together after retreat-
ing in good order.
Ewell led the forces out of Richmond.
Behind them, mobs of looters broke into
civilian shops and government storehouses.
Fires set under Army orders to destroy gov-
ernment-owned supplies quickly spread out
of control, melding with other fires started
by looters. Smoke and flames swirled from
a growing conflagration that consumed
much of the capital city.
Major Generals Joseph B. Kershaw andCustis Lee led their divisions of Ewell’s
forces to the south bank of the James River
across a pontoon bridge. Then they turned
west to follow the Genito Road before
picking up the path of the Richmond &
Danville Railroad. Moving to the north of
Ewell’s infantry on a roughly parallel route
was a long wagon train. Ewell’s command
included a mixed lot of garrison troops
and part-time emergency units comprised
of government clerks and other employ-
ees. Accompanying them was Tucker’s
uniquely mixed unit.
For some weeks, Tucker had led a force
of sailors and marines who manned bat-
teries at Drewry’s Bluff. Most of his men
came from ironclads or other vessels lost
over the last few months when the ports of
Savannah, Charleston, and Wilmington
fell to the Union. Tucker’s unit was styled
the Marine Brigade. Amid the despair andUnion Sergeant Joshua P. Graffam, left, of the 1st Maine Cavalry was killed at the Battle of Dinwiddie Court
House a week before Sayler’s Creek. His regiment was part of Maj. Gen. George Crook’s cavalry division.
RIGHT: A Confederate artillerist from the Richmond Howitzers fought as infantry at Sayler’s Creek after
escaping from Petersburg.CWQ-Sum16 Sayler's Creek_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:29 PM Page 16