Lee's Retreat

After laying siege to Petersburg for nine and a half months, Union forces under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant occupied Petersburg and Richmond on 3 April 1865. Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia retreated toward Danville but was forced westward at Jetersville on 5 April. Two miles north of here, in three engagements at Sailor’s Creek on 6 April, Grant’s army captured about 7,700 Confederates, including eight generals. Lee’s army, reduced by one fifth of its force, continued moving west, and Lee surrendered to Grant 72 hours later, on 9 April, at Appomattox Court House.