overlapped Kershaw’s right and got behind
him. Nearly surrounded, a few of Ker-
shaw’s men got away as their formation
disintegrated. With Pickett’s left flank bro-
ken and scattered at Marshall’s Cross-
roads, the way was open for Merritt’s cav-
alry to attack Ewell’s now isolated corps
from the rear. Above Little Sayler’s Creek,
the Confederates saw blue-coated infantry
engulfing their front and flanks and enemy
cavalry rushing in from behind.
Ewell saw that further resistance was
hopeless. Twenty years later, a Union vet-
eran writing for the National Tribune
stated, “I might add that Ewell came near
losing his life while looking for an officer
of equal rank to surrender to.” ColonelThomas S. Allen of the 5th Wisconsin
reported that Ewell approached Sergeant
Angus Cameron, in command of a squad
of five men in the regiment’s skirmish line.
Ewell asked Cameron if there was an offi-
cer present. No one of higher rank was on
hand, so the Confederate lieutenant gen-
eral surrendered the remnant of his corps
to a Union sergeant.
Soon after the surrender of Ewell and his
staff, wrote Allen, “a squad of cavalry
came up and claimed the prisoners and
took possession of them.” Elements of
Custer’s cavalry claimed to have captured
Ewell, and Ewell claimed that he had sur-rendered to cavalry officers. Amid a flurry
of competing claims, Cameron saw his dis-
tinction of capturing a lieutenant general
fall into dispute, but he was partially pla-
cated by being promoted to second lieu-
tenant after the battle. Taken prisoner with
Ewell were about 2,800 men including five
generals: Kershaw, Dudley M. DuBose,
James P. Smith, Seth Barton, and George
Washington Custis Lee.
After the rest of Ewell’s command was
captured or scattered, the Marine Brigade
still held on. No orders to withdraw ever
reached them. Later, Tucker drily
explained that “he had never been in a
land battle before, and that he had sup-
posed that everything was going well.”The steadfast discipline and determination
shown by the Marine Brigade impressed
soldiers of other commands, blue and gray.
Union Brig. Gen. Truman Seymour wrote
that they “fought with peculiar obstinacy.”
Informed by an officer that one Rebel
unit was still fighting, a disbelieving Brig.
Gen. Joseph Warren Keifer rode out to see
for himself. He found the Marine Brigade
by accidentally running into them. Think-
ing quickly, Keifer pretended to be a South-
ern officer and ordered them forward. The
sailors followed Keifer for a short distance,
but became suspicious. One man, close to
Keifer’s horse, raised his musket to fire, butTucker knocked the barrel aside.
Keifer returned with a white flag, accom-
panied by a Confederate officer who con-
firmed that Ewell and the rest of his men
were prisoners. At last, the Marine Brigade
surrendered. One of the Yankees, surprised
at seeing captives in naval uniforms, asked,
“Good heavens! Have you got gunboats
‘way up here, too?” Some of the naval offi-
cers broke their swords rather than hand
them over to their captors, but Tucker
handed his sword over to Keifer. Years
later, the Union general returned the sword
to Tucker.
Gordon, in command of the army’s rear
guard, sniped and sparred with
Humphreys’s II Corps all day. With Gordon
was the cavalry of Maj. Gen. William
Henry Fitzhugh Lee. Another son of the
commanding general, he was known as
Rooney Lee to avoid confusion with a
cousin, Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee. When the
VI Corps attacked, Gordon was about two
miles downstream from where Ewell was
overrun. At this place, called the Double
Bridges, the Jamestown Road crossed Little
Sayler’s Creek and Sayler’s Creek just above
their confluence. With two narrow spans
surrounded by soft, soggy ground, the Dou-
ble Bridges was a tight bottleneck to squeeze
through with a retreating wagon train.
Humphrey’s corps was fast approaching.
The two armies confronted each other
near the Double Bridges on the Lockett
Farm. Gordon arranged his men east of
the creek, while behind him the drivers
tried to get their wagons out of danger. The
Federals formed on a rise behind the Lock-
ett House. Maj. Gen. Nelson Miles’s divi-
sion held the Union right and Maj. Gen.
Gersham Mott held the left. Soon the Fed-
eral skirmishers approached, taking cover
when the Virginians opened fire and the
main battle line came within sight.
Gordon’s men fell back, taking cover
behind the wagons. As the enemy pushed
in the flanks and front, Captain Lorraine
F. Jones shouted, “Boys, take care of your-
selves!’” Jones then planted himself against
a pine, and, as his men rushed by him,
emptied every chamber of his revolver at
the enemy and then reluctantly make hisWaud sketched this chaotic scene as Confederate supply wagons scatter during an attack. Few if any supplies
made it through to Robert E. Lee’s hungry, footsore, and dispirited men on the withdrawal to Appomattox.CWQ-Sum16 Sayler's Creek_Layout 1 4/20/16 4:29 PM Page 22