At the start of the action at Appomattox Station, between about 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. on April 8, the leading troopers of Company K, 2nd New York Cavalry Regiment rode up to three unguarded Confederate trains that had been sent from Lynchburg, Virginia with rations, ordnance and other supplies for the Army of Northern Virginia and forced them to surrender. The rest of the regiment and other troopers from the brigade of Colonel Alexander Pennington, Jr. soon rode into the station in support. Troopers with railroad experience ran the three trains east about to the camp of the Union Army of the James. A fourth locomotive and one or two cars escaped toward Lynchburg and at least one remaining car from that train was burned.