Battle of Sutherland's Station

Other Names: None

Location: Dinwiddie

Campaign: Appomattox Campaign (March-April 1865)

Date(s): April 2, 1865

Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles [US]; Maj. Gen. Henry Heth and Maj. Gen. Cadmus Wilcox [CS]

Forces Engaged: Divisions

Estimated Casualties: 970 total (US 370; CS 600)

Description: Union columns converged on Petersburg on April 2. part Mile's force struck north from White Oak Road meeting elements of four Confederate brigades (Cooke, Scales, MacRae, McGowan) attempting to defend the South Side Railroad. The Confedeerates placed their left flank on Ocran Methodist Church, where it was overun by three Union brigades commanded by Miles. The Confederate defenders were scattered and driven northwestward. With this victory, the Federals possessed the South Side Railroad, Gen. Robert E. Lee's last supply line into Petersburg.

Result(s): Union victory

CWSAC Reference #: VA090

Preservation Priority: II.3 (Class C)

The Battle of Sutherland's Station was an American Civil War conflict fought on April 2, 1865, in Dinwiddie, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign.

Union columns converged on Petersburg on April 2, pushing through a large section of the Confederate defensive entrenchments. As Robert E. Lee desperately sought to buy time to allow his army to withdraw, Ulysses S. Grant launched several other attacks. Stubborn Confederate resistance at Fort Gregg delayed Grant's progress. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles's Union division battered Henry Heth's Confederates near Sutherland's Station and drove them off the field. The Confederate defenders were scattered and driven northwestward. With this victory, the Federals possessed the South Side Railroad, Gen. Robert E. Lee's last supply line into Petersburg. However, the lengthy defense of Fort Gregg and Grant's hesitation in aggressively following up on his success at Sutherland's Station permitted Lee to evacuate his army that night.

Battle

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had besieged Petersburg for ten long months, but as April 1865 opened, the Army of the Potomac under its commander, George G. Meade, was finally in a position to break through the entrenchments of the Army of Northern Virginia. At 4:30 on the morning of April 2 on the Confederate earthworks west of Petersburg. Meade sent forward four Union corps, with the VI Corps succeeding in breaking through the thinly manned Confederate lines. Flushed with success, the Union troops poured through the breech and turned the Southern flanks, eventually gaining control of the entrenchments from Hatcher's Run to Boydton Plank Road.

Robert E. Lee, realizing that the loss of so much of his defensive perimeter had now doomed the city, issued orders to evacuate Petersburg. He sent word to his remaining commanders to hold as long as they could to allow an orderly retreat. Federal troops repeatedly attacked Fort Gregg (held by only 500 Confederate defenders), but failed to q...