Sailor's Creek Battlefield State Park
Virginia State Park And National Historic Landmark; The Site Of The Battle Of Sailor'S Creek, 6 April 1865, The Last Major Engagement Of The Army Of Northern Virginia · Rice, Virginia
The last major battle of the Army of Northern Virginia, fought on 6 April 1865 in rolling farmland in Amelia and Prince Edward counties, three days before Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Lee was retreating west from Petersburg with a starving army and a wagon train he could not protect; Union cavalry cut the column at the crossings of Little Sailor's Creek and what followed destroyed roughly a quarter of his remaining force in an afternoon. Somewhere between seven and eight thousand Confederate soldiers were captured, including eight generals - Ewell among them - and when Lee watched the survivors coming back over the ridge he is supposed to have said "My God, has the army been dissolved?" The park preserves the ground almost unchanged: open fields, the creek bottoms where the fighting was worst, and the Hillsman House on the ridge, a 1770s farmhouse that became a Union field hospital and still has bloodstains on the floorboards. There is a small visitor centre, a few miles of trail and a driving tour, and on most days almost nobody else.
6541 Saylers Creek Road, Rice, Virginia, 23966, United States
Battlefield grounds, trails and the driving tour open daily, generally 8 AM to dusk. Visitor centre keeps shorter hours and is reduced in winter. THE HILLSMAN HOUSE IS SEASONAL and is the best thing on the site - check its schedule before travelling. Parking fee applies per vehicle. NO CAMPING; this is a day-use park. Metal detecting and relic hunting are prohibited and enforced.
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