Page:Civil War The 42nd Infantry Division of Bedford County Virginia.djvu/33



General Lee had ordered his army to move as quickly as possible back to Amelia Court House as he had ordered two days rations and folage to be sent there as his men and horses had not eaten in almost two days.

The famished regiments began to march into Amelia Court House on April 4 and General Lee rode in with Longstreet's advance about 8:30 a. m. and not a single ration was there. Hour after hour famished regiments marched in as planned. General Wilcox and his men arrived at noon, followed sometime later by General Heath, General Mahone, and General Goode's regiments. By late afternoon General Ewell arrived, then the cavalry under General Anderson and Fitzhugh Lee arrived. It was their job to hold General Sheridan off of the troops and burn the bridges after the last unit was across all waterways.

On April 5 General Mahone sent out commissary wagons to comb the countryside for food and folage; the wagons returned empty as the country had nothing to give after helping to feed the army for the past four years.

General Mahone went straight to General Lee with the bad news, General Lee was "in tears as he could no longer feed his men".

General Lee ordered all troops to form ranks and they would move south to Danville and hope to join General Joe E. Johnston's army of Tennessee at the North Carolina border, and be in better shape to give fight. He made a full apology to the troops because of no rations and had wired Danville to have 200,000 rations waiting for his men.

The men all agreed they could wait another day for food and rallied behind General Lee and headed south.

Eight miles south of Amelia Court House at Jetersville, Virginia they found General Sheridan's dismounted cavalry behind earthworks placed squarely across their line of march. This ended all hopes of rations or escape; his only alternative was to go west to Farmville, on to Appomattox, as his men were in no shape to fight an all-out battle.

The Federal cavalry of General Sheridan's cut gaps in the retreating line of men at every opportunity; 6,000 Confederate troops and nine Generals were taken in these disasters at Sayler's