Sailor's Creek

• Target Property at Sailor's Creek

  

  The Civil War Trust is currently working to preserve this 130-acre portion of the Sailor's Creek battlefield where, on April 6, 1865, Union cavalry attacked and overwhelmed the entrenched divisions of Bushrod Johnson and George Pickett.

  Chris Calkins

• Marshall's Crossroads

  

  Our target tract at Sailor's Creek is within sight of Marshall's Crossroads, a critical road juncture along Lee's retreat route. Finding themselves trapped here on April 6, Richard Anderson's Confederates entrenched in this vicinity. The Trust's target property is just beyond the horizon.

  Chris Calkins

• Charge of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry

  

  In his painting, "Marshall's Crossroads," artist Keith Rocco recreates the 2nd West Virginia's charge that broke through the Confederate line--and drove fleeing Southerners across the land the Trust is working to acquire.

  Keith Rocco, www.keithrocco.com

• Saved Land at Sailor's Creek

  

  In 2009, the Civil War Trust saved a 35-acre tract at Sailor's Creek where Col. Peter Stagg's all-Michigan cavalry brigade attacked the left flank of Joseph B. Kershaw's division along Little Sailor's Creek.

  Bill Hopkins

• Hillsman House

  

  In the late afternoon of April 6, the Union Sixth Corps under Horatio Wright, arrived here on the farm of James Hillsman and prepared to assault Richard Ewell's Confederates across Sailor's Creek.

  Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

• Ewell's Position

  

  Trailing Anderson's troops at Marshall's Crossroads, Gen. Richard Ewell's corps--composed mostly of garrison troops from Richmond--formed a defensive position here. Little Sailor's Creek sits at the bottom of the near treeline.

  Tommy Warshaw

• Federal Artillery

  

  Around 5:15PM on April 6, twenty pieces of Union artillery arrayed in front of the Hillsman House began a thirty-minute bombardment of Ewell's troops. With their ammunition trains elsewhere, the Confederates had no ordinance with which to answer the Federal guns.

  Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

• Historic View of Sailor's Creek

  

  This 1936 image shows the Sailor's Creek battlefield as viewed from Ewell's position. The building in the distance is the Hillsman House.

  National Park Service

• Wright's Assault

  

  After thirty minutes of shelling, the Federal Sixth Corps marched down this slope toward the banks of Little Sailor's Creek, on the other side of which waited Ewell's men.

  Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

• Victory or Death

  

  Overwhelmed by the Federal assault, the Savannah Volunteer Guard makes a futile stand at Sailor's Creek. Those Confederates who were not killed or wounded soon surrendered.

  Keith Rocco, www.keithrocco.com

• Surrender

  

  The last of Ewell's corps surrender to the Federals in this Alfred Waud sketch.

  Library of Congress

• Sailor's Creek Marker

  

  This marker commemorates the fighting done by the Confederates at the Lockett Farm.

  David Duncan