studying it, i have a lot of questions as to where these events took place and how the army's got from here to there. this book set up my quest to learn more about these sites. when i worked at appomattox, i worked with a gem in a lot of you may know. his name was harold howard. he was the role of a former confederate soldier. i took the role of the union soldier. he and i were companions in trying to learn more about the events that took place on the retreat. one of the areas that i was interested in was the battle of sailor's creek. sailor's creek became a state park in 1936. efforts were made to purchase more land for the park and have it become a national park. something happened, world war ii came along and the impetus was lost. after the war when things started looking up, there was a congressman who was from appomattox county and guess who got the national park? appomattox. sailor's creek languished for the next couple of decades. finally in 2008, sailor's creek which had been a satellite to a recreational park called twin like sailor's creekake, i was fortunate enough even though i was working for the national park service to be asked to be on a planning team for sailor's creek and later here at highbridge. i was familiar with the goals of the park service as to what they wanted. thanks to a bond referendum, $3.2 million was raised to develop sailor's creek. that's where i came in. i was offered this job. the first year we restored the house which had structural problems and opened it to the public. we built a visitor center the next year. after that, we put a museum in it. currently, we are doing landscape restoration and those who have been out there before know that the hillsman house is on high ground overlooking sailor's creek. the battle took place on the opposite side of the creek. you could never see one for the other. you look down with the creek is an all you could see was trees. now you can see both sides. we just finished a tree clearing project. getting back to the interest in finding out what happened at sailor's creek, they even had a map of the battle. we initially use that when we went out there. unfortunately, the current road system does not match. it was quite inaccurate. we would go out to sailor's creek five days a week and the hillsman house was open. of course, the house was empty at that time. it would open up and answer questions. his name was chris. three or four times, harold and i would go out there when it was supposed to be open and there was a note on the door that said gone to farmville for supplies. this went on for a couple of visits and we did catch up with chris. he did not know that we had made these earlier visits. we mentioned the signed that was on the door and he said the supplies were my girlfriend at longwood college. [applause] talking to the people around there, the state park gentlemen will tell you that the battle was here at the hillsman farm. a mile down the road at the intersection marshall's crossroads, the farmer that owned that property would tell us they don't know what they were talking about. look at all of these cannonballs and bullets that i find here. someone told us, you need to go two miles down the creek. see the gentleman owns the farm. we drive over to the locket farm. the gentleman there, his mother was in the house at the time of the battle. he was in world war i, so that tells you how old he was. we talked to him. he said they don't know what they are talking about. the battle was on my property. there is a marker out front. look at my house, it's full of loopholes. that he would take us into one of his sheds. he had relics of the family had picked up. that's where the confusion came in. the more i studied it, the more i realized it is the annals of sailor's creek. -- battles of sailor's creek. i mentioned briefly the three sites. there was fighting at the hillsman house. he would fight at the hillsman farm. then marshall's crossroads, that was richard anderson. he had troops under johnson and george pickett. you've got marshall's crossroads and hillsman's farm. then you have the battle of the locket farm or what they referred to as double bridges. there is little sailor's creek and there's big sailor's creek. they both come together at double bridges. there is a bridge over each one. that's where that comes in. one of the most common questions is how do you spell the creek? the park and the road that goes through it used to be spelled with all with -- with a y. the earliest map that i found was a 1750 map. on that map, this area, it was spelled the regular way. when i look at other maps produced for the civil war, all of them were spelled that way. the spelling that you come across, the earliest i found that on a map was 1878. that is where we are now. we tell our visitors that is the postwar spelling. if you are referring to the civil war, or to the park, it's. i brought some of our brochures. i had no idea how many people would be here. if you are planning to go to the park this afternoon, if you hold off taking one of these, they are in the back. we will get you some. it's on park row. my talk is referred to as black thursday, the battle for sailor's creek. one of the union generals who was involved in the battle, he wrote in his book about the fighting 5% of the intelligent people of the united states, north or south ever heard of the battle of sailor's creek. they don't know anything of its magnitude or importance. this is not strange. it was fought in virginia. this was three days before the surrender under general robert e lee. events were happening so rapidly that no note was made of the battle. in the next few minutes, you will be part of that part of our nation. just some point before we talk about the battle, there are three separate engagements referred to as the battles of sailor's creek. as you enter the museum, it refers to it as battles. i mentioned the spelling difference. there were two branches, most of the fighting was on little sailor's creek. you will read in books that if they mention sailor's creek, i have seen lee living half of his army or one third of his army. it was actually less than a quarter of his army. somewhere between a fifth at a quarter of his army. they were taken as prisoners. there were eight confederate generals who would surrender at sailor's creek. one is a ready in general brevard, he was promoted in the last days of the war. it never got ratified in the confederate congress. he was a would be general, but not. when people refer to us, you have to use the adjective last major battle before the surrender. there were four engagements that followed. they were highbridge, appomattox station, and appomattox courthouse. there was fighting afterwards. this is the last major. i was asked by my superiors in the park service to do a nomination and put it on the national register. i did the long nomination. somewhere along the line it got bumped up to national historic landmark. that is the highest-ranking estate can get. there is national significance. it is considered the largest surrender in the field of an army without terms. the men that surrendered at sailor's creek go off to prison camps and will not be released until also enforces cease firing , which is not until the end of may. the prisoners from sailor's creek will be in prison on johnson's island and ohio or point lookout maryland. those who surrender and appomattox are paroled and allowed to go home from that site. the hillsman fight was interesting in that it had a conglomerate of confederate sailors, marines, government employees w who were militia artillery men, they spent most of the war many the heavy artillery. upon leaving richmond on the retreat, they would be placed with infantry and fight at sailor's creek. their commander, this was his first major command in a battlefield. last night in the program on photographs at richmond there was the famous photo of generally with walter taylor. the other gentleman is george washington custis lee. as i mentioned last night when lee decided to withdraw his army from notably richmond and in between bermuda hunter, men would match -- march to the courthouse and receive rations. the supplies were not there. the goes ahead and decides to spend an extra day in the area and look for surplus food items. amelia was 30 miles from richmond, most of the surplus goods had already been sent on to the threats. when generally leaves amelia, he has lost his one day lead. he moves down the railroad heading towards north carolina. he has a goal of reaching gainesville. as he moves down the line, he comes across a roadblock at a train station. union infantry has swung around on a faster route around the amelia courthouse. they cut across to the railroad. generally decides not to do battle but to begin three night marches in a row. starting from amelia until appomattox, they will march day and night until they get to appomattox. not fighting at cheaters fill they come to a resort called amelia springs. while he was at amelia springs isaac st. john informs him that there are 120,000 rations waiting in farmville. it would be located at the station. part of which is the art gallery we mentioned, that is part of the passenger station not that many years ago. the original freight depot was there. it has since been torn down. if he makes a night march, he can move around the unit army and get ahead of it. you can get these supplies issued to his men and head south. he re-intercepts the railroad going to danville and he can continue his march. that is what had him heading toward farmville. as he is heading along, he comes to an area past deaton bill. it is a 23 mile march. as he is moving along the army is on a single roadway going across the rolling land of the he'd mocked. -- piedmont. union infantry will move upon the wagon train and his battle lines and there will be hit and run tactics by cavalry. that is what brings us to what happens on the evening of april 6 on sailor's creek. previous to fighting at sailor's creek, there was another small engagement just between sailor's creek and farmville. the engagement was for highbridge. union troops stationed in burke bill -- burkville realized they were living upon farmville at this time so they sent a group of union infantry, 900 men along with three companies of the fourth massachusetts calgary. the goal is to ride in front in getting front of the confederate army, move in front of highbridge, about four miles from here industry is -- destroy it. highbridge was 125 feet high. it was 21 for peers -- brick piers, most of which are still there today and part of the other state park highbridge trail. you can walk out to the bridge and across. the bridge is 2400 feet long. it was protected by four urban court -- urban four. in before they were guarded -- in the fort they were guarded by local militia coming to farmville. they were there. the union calvary and infantry made an attack on the bridge but were repulsed by quickly arriving confederate calgary sent from the area of rice. on the afternoon of april 6, union forces try to destroy highbridge. they were unsuccessful. most of them being killed or captured in this fight. one of the last confederate generals to die in the war would be mortally wounded and would die on april 23. he holds the honor if it can be said that the last confederate officer to die in the war. so with satisfied being over with, that evening near the crossing of sailor's creek, the union army would reach the area of a small farmhouse known as hillsman house, which would later serve as the field hospital and the confederate forces, the regulars along with heavy artillery men and all would form on high ground overlooking favors creek and the union six army corps would cross the creek. at that time creek was up because of the spring rain. it was up to their waste. it is usually ankle-deep. once the union forces boarded the creek they formed up at the top of the hill. the union army will march forward going up the hill, and the men at that time realize the end was coming near so a lot of the union soldiers took out paper chief and waved them at the confederate troops who were close enough they could hear the union for six yellow, johnny, we are coming, go ahead to render. with that, the confederate troops rose on an meltdown and fired a volley into the union line, breaking it with the union troops falling back toward the creek until they were preformed and made the final attack on the confederate forces. and that fighting they captured general joseph cattrall, custis lee, said barton -- seth barton and confederate army who was in charge of stonewall jackson's artillery and wounded in the battle of chancellorsville with the general theory of people be killed and that assault. buried on the battlefield. with the counterattack taking place along the creek one of the confederate soldiers in the battle mentioned in the final part of the battle says quicker than i could tell it, the battle degenerated into a butchery of brutal personal conflicts. others lost their weapons and used teeth to bite noses and the terrible couple. one of the union soldiers that if you come out of the parking will be introduced to, his name was samuel a, 37 massachusetts. they had particular advance weapon called the dispenser rifle that could fire and cartridge rounds without reloading. in the final attack, it easy the confederate army government toward him and they moved forward to receive this render when the confederate officer decided he is not going to surrender, drop the flag, pulled pistol out and shoots entertain bradley through the side. no sooner did he do that then sam eddie runs forward with the repeating rifle and kills the confederate officer and immediately upon doing that, a confederate soldier wearing a yankee overcoat comes running up to eddie, and takes the rifle and shows it through eddie's chest and pinned him to the ground. he then tries to get the vital away from him, but eddie, although he is in his 40's but have been a blacksmith in civilian life fixes less than throws in another cartridge, swings around until the confederate soldier who it just that tim, pulled up the bayonet weapon and marched back to the hillsman house that serve as a field hospital. you will see that but one of the more unique thing is years ago on the ground around the hillsman house which served as the hospital, the dog tag was found. that is on display in the museum. the federal calvary was under general philip sheridan and wesley merritt and had with him some folks you probably you have recognized, george armstrong custer, thomas devon and george crook. many of these the fighter in the indians were afterwards. they are facing confessional to richard anderson and bush ron johnson. that fighting at that intersection, which is just beyond the visitor center is known as marshall's crossroads or harper's farm. here the union calvary would attack at the same time that fighting was going on down at the hillsman house along the creek. now the fighting at the creek, the confederates did not have artillery. the switch to relate to the union bombardment of 20 gun set up in the yard of the hillsman house. here at the fighting of the crossroads, both confederate and union forces did have artillery to use. a lot of the union causally have lost -- had lost their mounts, that they wrote directly provision of doing valley invalid down through richmond across appomattox river and immediately joined up with the army. one of them, sergeant coming to him, the first virginia calvary remembered it took my mule about four jumps to show he could outclass all others. he laid back his ears and flattened out like a jack rabbit. he switched his tales and sailed right over amongst the rebs. the mule had some new -- new site and posterior uppercuts that put him out of the game. eventually the union army would cause them to break. they would leave the battlefield and route. they were heading down the road toward rice depot. a member of the 19 virginia who was in the route remembered this , he said for a while our retreat was remarkably orderly. i tried it off but as i have lost my horse. presently a little unsteadiness manifested itself, which quickly became a decided wobble, and then in a moment, as though it has asked loaded, the whole organization went to pieces. it did not take long for me to be thoroughly infected. i got over the ground unimpeded by the reflection i have not the least of which i was going, so we plunged along, huffing and puffing and blowing, enveloped in the hideous noise of battle, helter-skelter, each for himself and double take the high road. that property i just described at the crossroads takes to the civil war trust, we recently acquired 12 acres per feet which will be added, along with a conservation easement. along with 100 and 18 acres. we have added that land. the duty and putting trial because one of the supporting truth is that george pickett decided. obviously george can do no wrong. to interpret the fact that he took off with the, oh well. the growth of doing interpretation. keeping everybody happy. you have the fights there, and finally, as i mentioned, two miles down creek and in and going into the battle of the river and the cost of arms. the confederate army was heading toward emilia and heading toward rice, they have the whole line of infantry and wagon train on one wrote. a mile before they got to sailor's creek, it was decided to turn off the main wagon train on a more northerly road known as jamestown road. that is where general jordan second port with turn off with the main wagon train. and you they would prefer that to the battlefield, and would lose 1500 men, 200 wagon, three artillery piece is, seven ambulance, 13 battle flag recaptured by the union is under general humphreys that would attack them there. the next morning what would have it night is the battle of the confederate forces who retreated from that site, they would have to high bridge and would actually cross over the valley of the appomattox river on the bridge. at that time the railroad bridge at siding on either side, like sidewalks. the infantry crossed over it. i love they had a lower wagon bridge. it would be that piece that once the confederate got across our bridge they would put to fire the western edge of it and burn it. most of the photographs to see if you can see after they had reconstruction -- reconstructive deception of the war. they tried to burn the black and bridge below but the union versus caps off the night before that to the site just in time and were able to the fire off and consequently were able to cross over and were able to pursue the confederate forces. as the union troops began pursuit on the morning of april they mentioned going by the abandoned wagon train. they sent wagons with the cutoff in the following prescript -- described like quote in the last-ditch." we all can't with you all without something to eat. -- whip you all without something to eat. their roles applejack, fancy articles christie confederate notes, frolicking puppies, brass band, broiled ham in beef. belkin, onion, pickle and cornmeal. the rebel prisoner passing was asked when the last time we were -- they were paid. confederate bills found were lavishly handed of. the ninth of april 6, the confederate forces that have passed through that area's continued the march into farmville. one of the confederate generals captured what remark, i caused this lease should surrender now before more like early. generally, who was with the lead confederate forces was in the area of rice depot and he was stationed there and wondering where the rest of his army was. he then turned around and took general mahone and went back to sailor's creek. anderson's men and spilling in that direction were spilling across it with -- sailor's creek. sailor's creek then turned out to be a major disaster or the confederate army. generally speaking between a third and a quarter of the forces were taken from him. there were 7700 prisoners taken including fletcher's daughter who will, custard lee, seth barton, dudley devoe, joseph kershaw and jameson. -- james sim. all of them would go to prison. a few days later, upon reaching the village of appomattox courthouse april 9, he will surrender approximately 30,000 troops. when he left richmond, the confederate forces numbered around 55,000 troops. so you can figure that out. at appomattox, 8000 sailors creek at of approximately 55,000 would bring it to quarter to a fifth of the army. was given for different reasons for today for the most part. for the capture flag, 49 union soldiers were given medals of honor. nine for gallantry want to sam eddie who did get a medal of honor for saving entertained like. one was given for the capture of general custis lee. 800 mules and horses, along with 15 artillery pieces. that night the confederate prisoners were kept on the battlefield. the next day they were marched to junction event followed the railroad to petersburg and beyond to city point, which is now hope well worth it would board shifts to be taken to prison. the next morning as the army's welcome the prisoners and continue the pursuit, general custard serenaded his guests with his hands playing such tunes as did the summit to which general kershaw replied, there goes the chivalrous all of -- fellow. the band responded by playing the bonnie blue flag followed by the rebel royale. that night, the night of april 6, jefferson davis with the confederate was now indian hill virginia and sent an emissary or messenger to find generally and find out what the status of the army was. that young fellow who did that phone generally at rice's depot and as for message to take back to the president. just as i suspected it would from the beginning. i suspect that the beginning of the campaign rather than the beginning of the war. that night general sheridan sent a message back to city point to abraham lincoln who was visiting their. in the message he said i think lee will surrender to which link sent the forwarding message, let the thing be pressed. so at sailors creek on the evening of april 6 1865, the army of normal -- northern virginia had 72 hours to continue to exist. thank you, and i hope this afternoon you folks look like to come out. it is about 15 minutes from here to sailors requital field. all you need to do is get on route 460 east like you are going to richmond and petersburg. just a couple of miles out of town you will come to a major intersection. route 306 to richmond. just turn like you are going to richmond, a couple of titles and will see the signs to the park. hopefully the weather will hold and will show you what we have done out there. [applause] >> appreciate the talk. come to the microphone and give your name and question. it seems to me they made a major mistake by sending mainly infantry. they are about dawn on april 6. they sent are more calvary men because they with the help at the case of the infantry. b[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, [inaudible] what i would say is he is in charge of one of the two union army on this campaign. one is the army under the potomac. as i mentioned earlier, the troops were ever built. the majority of the union calvary was under philip sheridan, and they were moving on at sailors creek. really all we had was a small group, and that is where the fourth massachusetts, and not a whole regimen of just three companies. i think they thought they would get ahead of the main confederate column and get there ahead of time. whether they knew holding the fort was -- or the bridge was just a small group of reserves. they went pretty much unmolested to the fourth, and only after the general, who was at right there was a bridge burning party. only then he realized he was able to take the confederate army and send them on after the troops. just a situation of not knowing much about who was at highbridge and where the confederate army was at this time. i think that is why he would not send more forces. the initial horse was reaching highbridge when he found out long street was setting confederate calgary after them. he actually sent a to gather the bridge burning forces and gather them back to let them know they are being cut off by confederate forces. i think it was the situation. will of the fighting is more to himself. are on the following. feedlot fall very little action during the war, so consequently as they were moving richmond and petersburg towards down -- danville and eventually toward appomattox, they were unfamiliar with the area. and for once, both were at a disadvantage in that they were in unfamiliar territory. quickly will take these two questions. if you have more questions and is program. >> just to give you a little context, i have very little interest in bottle, but a lot of interest in the civil war. i just met the biography of george washington. i got much more knowledge than i ever wanted about battle. one of the big issues for washington was militia. dealing with season soldiers versus militia were very independent and not really into it in a lot of ways. i was wondering when you'd the content of the confederate forces were sailors militia some of them were militia. in that the relative content percentage of the confederate troops at that stage was more militia and seasoned veterans and contrasting the union troop and confederate troops from that perspective. also, from the whole war, i'm curious about that if the union versus the confederate have more militia. >> actually, i believe it was in 1864 the inscription of local reserves for militia -- or militia took place in the summer. i will use for example the third virginia reserves, which came from this area. these men were on call for duty, they did not like the third virginia stay at highbridge all the time, although they had some quarters out there, but only when they were threatened by federal calvary rates would they go out. usually they were equipped with more inferior weapons then the main army. i would say at this point the majority of the confederate army were still regulars and seasoned veterans. the difference between lee's army, of course, by being in a siege operation around richmond and petersburg, i was refer to that 9.5 months in pain as the wearing down of lee's army. most of the fighting was cutting the supply line coming into petersburg and richmond. also by this time in the union forces were now much better than they had been through the war. for the most part the union army would be on the offensive. but the militia and the reserves , like in richmond, these were more clerk. they had other jobs. it did not toward the army toward the confederate army, but there are two stories of valor by the militia or the reserves that take place in the last year of the war. one is june night, 1864. -- june 9 1864. just east of here there was a bottle of old men and young boys. these were civilian altars who came out and defeated the union calvary attack on the petersburg and on the bridge over stand river. we did see some heavy action. all caps, not on duty over time. please. i've always been curious why generally was not aware or did not do something to prevent the separation of forces. bwhich is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] life as i mentioned, the confederate army was on the move from amelia to farmville was for the most part on one roadway. generally was writing in the front. leading the confederate column through that area was general long street first and third order. have passed through the valleys of taylor's creek, and had gone on to wrice and they found out they other union army was coming up the railroad with that direction. the union albury -- calvary in particular would you hit and run tactics on this particular line wherever there was a road. wherever there was across read the union army would come and attack and hold the the confederate forces to protect the wagon. they cause the spread and large gap. consequently, with the gap opening, that is when the majority of federal calvary and now supported by federal infantry attacked the confederate forces at sailors creek. apparently was more interested in what was coming up the railroad from berg wilurkville. we said basically we wonder where the army was an we rode back toward taylor's creek mile and got on the high ground overlooking sailor's creek, and that is where he found the rest of the army. just with circumstances of how things were happening at that point. all right. [applause] >> if you plan to come to sailors creek this afternoon, it is about 15 minutes from here. i will be out here we will help to park and give you a tour of the new museum. if it is not raining we will on the battlefield. >> thank you. chris has a rather let the rough of books. we have two copies left. last night they announced they were out of print. we have two copies left. i refrained from buying them and marking them up and selling them on ebay so looks and get them here. we have hot off the press the magazine that replaces. this just came out two days ago. the "blue and gray" magazine covering the bottle of sailors creek in cumberland church. the two are guided book from appomattox is available for under five dollars. he did a book with ed bars on the battle of five forks, and the battle of appomattox nation inc. warehouse, and i think i failed to mention the campaign one. also should mention earlier william lynn and his crew for facilitating the use of the fantastic auditorium. we will take a 10 minute break and be back with the battles of appomattox, final fury in the last tonight. quickly will come back on the closing of the civil war in just a few minutes. up next, the c-span cities tour dates they explore the history of cities across the country. >> this is the great story of a patriot. if you are civil war historian you may have heard of it. >> the general story has somewhat been lost. born around 1837. the family moved in from water burning to the county seat. at the age of 14, the example of the kind of person he was, he decided yet enough of school and set i do not want to go to school anymore, i want to be active and be involved. no one is idle around me. you are going to work in the foundry. after two years in the foundry he decided maybe that is not what he wanted to do. he came out of the foundry and then comes out working for his father and the finance department and then now realized he needed education. so he went off to ultimately harvard. at harvard he was a very good student, but not outstanding. about in the middle of his class. he, however, with everyone's friend. everyone wanted to get to know him. he was a natural leader that is likable, people are drawn to him, decisive, personable and a gentleman. when he came out, he became a lawyer. moved back and 1861 only a couple years after college suddenly the civil war broke out . as a patriot he knew there was only one thing he could do. the first regiment he got involved in from pennsylvania went to pittsburgh, only serving for three months and then he came home. most men would have felt he had done his duty. a new regiment was being formed. so he joined the regiment. he writes to his wife for the climactic battle of gettysburg. no greater glory than to die in the defense. no greater glory than a half slip like. the war was not going well as you know. he had hoped to end the war with one big victory. though vincent was a part of the army. no one hoping to occur at gettysburg. by mistake actually. neither one expected to be fighting there. looking frantically for a commander to get the orders to. it was the end of the union line. i got a was absolutely undefended. one of the people looking at the battle map saw it was uncovered. send orders to coverage immediately. the person who brought the orders could not find the man he was supposed to give it to. vincent saw him frantically writing around looking for the guy inside what is your orders? the orders were to defend. he said i will take the responsibility of defending the top, and he moves his men over 1000.

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