The Battle of Cumberland Church was fought on April 7, 1865, between the Union Army's II Corps of the Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War.
After the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865, surviving Confederate troops of Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson and Major General John B. Gordon headed for the High Bridge, a double-deck structure with a railroad bridge on top and a lower wagon road bridge over the Appomattox River to cross to the north side of the river and continue their retreat to the west. The Confederates intended to destroy the bridge, which they had fought to save the day before in the Battle of High Bridge, but through mistakes and delays did not start to do so until Union troops of Major General Andrew A. Humphreys's II Corps began to arrive at the bridges. After a second smaller Battle of High Bridge, the Union soldiers at the scene kept the railroad bridge from total destruction and saved the wagon bridge in shape for use.
Humphreys's troops pursued the last division in the line of march, the division of Major General William Mahone to Cumberland Church about to the west and north of Farmville, Virginia where the Confederates began to fortify the high ground around the church. Soon, Lieutenant General James Longstreet with the entire remaining Confederate infantry moved up from Farmville, Virginia to join Mahone, burning the railroad and wagon bridges at Farmville after them. The Confederate cavalry and one infantry brigade that were left behind had to ford the river nearby.
After some fighting in transit to Cumberland Church in which Brigadier General Thomas A. Smyth was mortally wounded, Humphreys ordered his two divisions, which reached the church soon after Mahone, to attack the Confederate line. Finding the Confederate position too strong to take, Humphreys recalled Brigadier General Francis Barlow's division, which had been heading directly to Farmville in pursuit of Gordon's corps, and sent a message to Army of the Potomac commander Major General George Meade that Lee's whole army was north of the river. Humphreys suggested that reinforcements be sent in order to engage the full Confederate Army. Neither Humphreys nor Meade knew until later that the Confederates had destroyed the bridges at Farmville and no reinforcements could reach Humphreys that afternoon.
Mistaking a separate nearby cavalry engagement as the arrival of reinforcements engaging with Lee's infantry, Humphreys ordered another futile attack, which was repulsed by the Confederates. Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) John Irvin Gregg was taken prisoner by the Confederates in the cavalry engagement. Since no reinforcements could quickly reach Humphreys and night was approaching, Humphreys ordered no further attacks. The II Corps had at least 571 casualties in the Battle at Cumberland Church and the cavalry had 74 in what is sometimes called the Battle of Farmville. Confederate casualties are unknown but have been estimated to be about half the number of the Union casualties. The National Park Service gives the number of Confederate casualties as 255.
Realizing that the Union forces could close in on his men at Cumberland Church, General Robert E. Lee withdrew his army in another night march to the west at about 11:00 p.m. Although the Confederates held back the Union Army at Cumberland Church and had fewer casualties, they were delayed in their march, which helped other Union forces south of the Appomattox River to pass them and cut them off at the Battle of Appomattox Court House.
Background
Retreat from Sailor's Creek
Because of the need to reduce steep grades in the vicinity of Farmville, the South Side Railroad crossed from the south side of the Appomattox River to the north side over the High Bridge east of Farmville, about from Rice's Station.Calkins, Chris. The Appomattox Campaign, March 29 – April 9, 1865. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1997. . p. 123 From High Bridge, the railroad ran parallel to the north bank of the river until it reached Farmville, Virginia, to the southwest. At Farmville, the railroad crossed back to the south side of the river and proceeded to the west. The railroad bridge at Farmville also had an adjacent wagon bridge.Calkins, 1997, pp. 123–124.
After the Battle of Sailor's Creek, Confederate Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson and Major General John B. Gordon and the defeated survivors of their corps headed for the South Side Railroad's High Bridge and the wagon bridge below it to cross to the presumed relative safety of the north side of the Appomattox River.Humphreys, Andrew A., The Virginia Campaign of 1864 and 1865: The Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James. New York: Charles Scribner%27s Sons, 1883. . Retrieved March 5, 2015. p. 386. After fighting unsuccessfully to destroy the bridges after themselves, Gordon and his men followed the route of the railroad over the High Bridge, along the north bank of the river, and back to the south side of the river over the bridges at Farmville to obtain rations and then immediately return to the north side of the river from Farmville.
Longstreet moves to, evacuates Farmville
Lieutenant General James Longstreet's corps, which had reached Rice's Station on the morning of April 6, had moved past Sailor's Creek because they were at the head of the march and missed the battle there.Calkins, 1997, pp. 99, 105. After the minor Battle of Rice's Station on April 6, in a night march, Longstreet's corps slipped away from Major General John Gibbon's XXIV Corps of Major General Edward Ord's Army of the James, which had approached the Confederate lines at Rice's Station during afternoon.Calkins, 1997, pp. 115–116.Humphreys, 1883, pp. 386–387. Longstreet's corps stayed south of the river and headed west for Farmville during the night. Confederate cavalry had been covering Longstreet's march but after crossing Bush River, Longstreet placed Alfred M. Scales's brigade (under the command of Colonel Joseph H. Hyman) of Major General Cadmus Wilcox's division as the rear guard.Calkins, 1997, pp. 124–125.
Longstreet's troops began to arrive at Farmville, under close pursuit by Union Major General George Crook's cavalry division, at about 9:00 a.m.on April 7.Calkins, 1997, p. 124. Gibbon's XXIV Corps of Ord's Army of the James, reinforced by Brigadier General William Birney's second division of the XXV Corps, followed closely behind Crook's cavalry. Rations were promptly issued to Longstreet's men at Farmville but the soldiers were told to march to the north side of the river to begin their meal preparations.
When Confederate Commissary General Isaac M. St. John heard gunfire just outside town, he sent the ration trains west on the South Side Railroad to Pamplin's Depot or Pamplin's Station in an effort to prevent their capture.Calkins, 1997, p. 128. Sheridan's cavalry got to Pamplin's Station first and captured 3 engines and the rolling stock with the supplies.Trudeau, 1994, pp. 126–127. The Confederate provost guard and their prisoners were sent down the road without rations.Marvel, 2002. . p. 123. Some rations were passed out to troops on the march out of Farmville and the empty wagons from which they were distributed were burned.Marvel, 2002, p. 122. Longstreet had to move his forces quickly from Farmville to the Cumberland Church vicinity to avoid Union forces closing in the town.
Second Battle of High Bridge
Major General Andrew A. Humphreys began to march the II Corps west from the Sailor's Creek Battlefield at 5:30 a.m. on April 7.Calkins, 1997, p. 125. When the leading unit of the Second Division of the II Corps under the command of Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow reached High Bridge at about 7:00 a.m., they found that the Confederates had blown up the redoubt at the bridgehead on the northern (and western) side of the bridge and were just starting to burn the railroad bridge and lower wagon and foot bridge.Humphreys, 1883, p. 387.Marvel, 2002, p. 121. A mistaken or misunderstood order to Lieutenant General Anderson's guards not to allow anyone to pass kept Major General William Mahone's division from crossing until the order were clarified.Anderson said that he issued the order because General Lee had ordered him to collect all stragglers. Calkins, 1997, p. 125. Then more time was spent getting the required order to destroy the bridges to the Confederate engineers commanded by Colonel Thomas M. R. Talcott.Marvel, 2002, p. 121 states that Mahone, as commander of the rear guard, should have given the order. Mahone later tried to pass the responsibility for the delayed order to Gordon or even to say that he asked Lee to give the order directly to Talcott. Talcott stated that Mahone should have given the order and that he had to send his second-in-command looking for orders to destroy the bridge and found Mahone down the road from the bridge.Calkins, 1997, pp. 125–126. This permitted the lead units of the II Corps to reach the bridge just as the Confederates were attempting to destroy it.Starr, Steven. The Union Cavalry in the Civil War: The War in the East from Gettysburg to Appomattox, 1863–1865. Volume 2. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2007. Originally published 1981. . p. 475.
The ensuing fight to save or destroy the bridges was the second Battle of High Bridge, following the battle the previous day when a Union raiding force tried to destroy the bridge to keep the Confederates on the south side of the Appomattox River and the Confederates successfully fought to save it, killing or capturing the Union force. On the morning of April 7, the Union troops led by the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment under Colonel Isaac R. Starbird were able to prevent the total destruction of the railroad bridge, though it had been made unusable.Calkins, 1997, pp. 126–127. They were able to preserve the wagon bridge for passage of the II Corps in their pursuit of Gordon, Anderson and Mahone.Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Appomattox: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations During the Civil War's Climactic Campaign, March 27 – April 9, 1865. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. . p. 160. Colonel William A. Olmsted's First Brigade of Barlow's division and Brigadier General Thomas Alfred Smyth's Third Brigade, joined by Brigadier General Nelson Miles's division drove off a counterattack by Mahone's troops who were trying to complete the bridges' destruction.Calkins, 1997, pp. 127–128. Mahone's division was in a defensive line with two redoubts on high ground on the north bank of the river when the II Corps began to arrive at the bridges but they moved to northwest when they could not destroy the bridges and prevent Humphreys's corps from crossing the river.
Gordon's corps moved up river along the railroad bed toward Farmville. Humphreys, with Miles's and Brigadier General Regis de Trobriand's divisions, followed Mahone while Barlow's division followed Gordon.Humphreys, 1883, p. 388.
Pursuit; Smyth mortally wounded
Gordon's corps and Barlow's division skirmished from High Bridge to the northern outskirts of Farmville. An advance Union party of 103 men from the 7th Michigan Infantry Regiment and the 59th New York Infantry Regiment were taken prisoner by the 9th (1st) North Carolina Battalion of Sharp Shooters of Brigadier General John A. Walker's division.
Barlow's division caught up with part of Gordon's division and cut off and burned 135 wagons along the road. During this attack, Brigadier General Smyth was mortally wounded by a sniper shot as he rode with his skirmish line within of Gordon's rear guard near Farmville.Trudeau, Noah Andre. Out of the Storm: The End of the Civil War, April–June 1865. Boston, New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1994. . p. 122.