Battle of Sailor's Creek Battle of Sailor's Creek The Battle of Sailor's Creek was fought on April 6, 1865, near Farmville, Virginia, as part of the Appomattox Campaign, near the end of the American Civil War. It was the last major engagement between the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, commanded by General Robert E. Lee and the Union Army under the overall direction of Union General-in-Chief Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. After abandoning Petersburg, the exhausted and starving Confederates headed west, hoping to re-supply at Danville or Lynchburg, before joining General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. But the stronger Union army kept pace
Fourth Corps, Army of Northern Virginia Commanded by temporary Lt. General Anderson, it was made up of units that before had served around Richmond and Petersburg as part of General Beauregard's Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia. The Fourth Corps spent the winter of 1864/5 encamped around Petersburg as part of the Army of Northern Virginia. In April the Army of the Potomac, under General Ulysses Grant, broke through the defences and successfully concluded the siege of Richmond, initiating the start of the Appomattox Campaign. The Fourth Corps retreated with the rest of General Lee's Army but was largely destroyed in the Battle of Sailor's