✦ History

Part of American Civil War

Battle of Sailor's Creek

April 6, 1865 · Sailor's Creek, Virginia

Result Union victory

6 April 1865 engagement in which Robert E. Lee witnessed the surrender from a nearby bluff and made his famous despairing remark to Maj. Gen. William Mahone, asking whether the army had dissolved; Mahone replied that troops were ready to do their duty.

On the map Contemporaries

Union

Confederacy

United States
Confederate States of America
Ulysses S. Grant Philip Henry Sheridan Major General, Commander of the Union cavalry Horatio Gouverneur Wright Major General, Commander of VI Corps
Richard S. Ewell Richard Herron Anderson Lieutenant General, Corps commander; his troops were scattered at Sailor's Creek

Strength and losses

Strength
25,000–26,000
Casualties
1,148

Units

Army of the James Army of the Potomac Army of the Shenandoah (Union)
Army of Northern Virginia Pickett's Division

Related events 1 degree away • 2 degrees away

 
Battle of Five Forks
 
Battle of Sailor's Creek
 
Battle of Appomattox Court House

Also involved 2