Custer wanted to locate the main body of Lee's troops so he either sent the 15th Regiment New York Volunteer Cavalry, led by Lieutenant Colonel Augustus J. Root, to make a final charge along the pike toward Appomattox Court House or Root took off on his own initiative, depending on the account. Root's men caused some havoc along the line of retreating artillery, gunners, wagons and stragglers as they rode into the small town. Root and at least one other man were killed and one or more other Union troopers were wounded in their foray into town. According to Volume 5, "Confederate Military History," by former Confederate Brigadier General Ellison Capers, Jacob David Felder of Bamberg, South Carolina, a private in Company H, Hampton's Legion, fired the fatal shot at Root after Root had fired at Felder first and narrowly missed. Historian William Marvel states that Root had ridden through the town with some daring troopers behind him when a few curious disorganized stragglers fired into the approaching horsemen.