What was the most significant event on April 8 during the U.S. Civil War?

In 1862 the confederacy in Texas dreamed of access to the Santa Fe Trail and the gold mines of California and Colorado and fulfilling their manifest destiny. They won tactical victories but suffered strategic defeat in this endeavor.
In 1862 US Gen Pope’s victory of a combined Army and Navy assault on the defense of Island Number 10 cleared the Mississippi River up to Vicksburg which was an important step in preparing the battlefield for the ultimate taking of Vicksburg much later in the war.
In 1865 Maj. Gen. George Custer’s destroying the artillery and capturing the stores of CSA GEN Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia prepared the way for the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia the following day.
Since RallyPoint truncates survey selection text I am posting events that were not included and then the full text of each survey choice below:
A. Tuesday, April 8, 1862: the so-called "Battle of Albuquerque." It started on April 8, 1862 and ended sometime after darkness fell on April 9th. This skirmish was important in the larger scheme of things, for it hastened the withdrawal of Confederate forces from Santa Fe and started the Texans on their way back down the Rio Grande. These Texans had retreated to Santa Fe after losing all their supplies in the Battle of Glorieta Pass. There was only one casualty: A Union Major, Thomas Duncan, while dodging a bouncing six-pound cannonball on horseback, fell to the ground and seriously injured himself.
B. Tuesday, April 8, 1862: Gen. John Pope accepts the surrender of the Confederates at Island No. 10, under Brig. Gen. William W. MacKall after a combined Army and Navy assault which began on march 15, 1862. Pope captured approximately 4,000 men, along with all arms and artillery. The capture of Island No. 10 opened up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg.
C. Friday, April 8, 1864: Battle of Mansfield (Sabine Crossroads), Louisiana (Red River Expedition). BLUF: Mansfield was the decisive battle of the Red River Campaign, influencing Banks to retreat back toward Alexandria.
CSA Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor created a trap for Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks' Union army. In late afternoon, Taylor, though outnumbered, decided to attack. His men made a determined assault on both flanks, rolling up one and then another of Banks’s divisions. Finally, about three miles from the original contact, a third Union division met Taylor’s attack at 6:00 pm and halted it after more than an hour's fighting. That night, Taylor unsuccessfully attempted to turn Banks’s right flank. Banks withdrew but met Taylor again on the 9th at Pleasant Hill. Mansfield was the decisive battle of the Red River Campaign, influencing Banks to retreat back toward Alexandria.
D. Saturday, April 8, 1865: Battle of Appomattox Station, VA. Maj. Gen. George A. Custer’s division of Union cavalry captured a supply train and twenty-five guns, driving off and scattering the Confederate defenders. This unique action pitted artillery without infantry support against cavalry. Custer captured and burned three trains loaded with provisions for Lee’s army.
1. Tuesday, April 8, 1862 --- At a sharp skirmish at Fallen Timbers, as Sherman pushes the pursuit of the retreating Rebels, Col. Nathan Bedford Forrest personally leads a cavalry charge to stop the Yankees, and is wounded twice—and still escapes, alone, back to his regiment.
http://civilwarsesquicentdaily-wolfshield.blogspot.com/search?q=++April+8%2C+1862
2. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- The USS Keokuk, having been badly damaged in the previous day’s battle, sinks offshore near Charleston.
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3. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- Near New Carthage, Louisiana, just south of Miliken’s Bend on the Mississippi, there is heavy skirmishing between the Federal troops of John McClernand’s corps and Rebel troops there, near James’ Plantation.
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4. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- Gen. John G. Foster and his troops are still under siege in Washington, North Carolina, by Confederate troops under Gen. D.H. Hill.
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5. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, having already ejected Thomas Knox, a reporter for the New York Herald, from his camp in past weeks, now writes a letter to Knox after President Lincoln has allowed Knox to return to the front and Sherman’s corps, if Sherman will permit it. Here is the general’s answer: Come with a sword or musket in your hand, prepared to share with us our fate, in sunshine and storm, in prosperity and adversity, in plenty and scarcity, and I will welcome you as a brother and associate. But come as you now do, expecting me to ally the honor and reputation of my country and my fellow Soldiers with you as the representative of the press, which you yourself say, makes so slight a difference between truth and falsehood, and my answer is Never.
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6. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles has dark forebodings as he awaits news of the attack on Charleston Harbor: An oppressive and anxious feeling in relation to movements at Charleston. It has been expected an attack would be made the first week in April. We hear nothing. The Rebel authorities permit their papers to publish nothing, nor will they allow the flag of truce to bring us their papers. This intensifies the desire to learn something of proceedings.
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7. Wednesday, April 8, 1863 --- George Templeton Strong writes in his journal about political events in New York City and about the progress of the war. Not yet having heard the bad news from Charleston, he speculates also on the naval attack there: The grand meeting of anti-conscription Copperheads at Cooper Union last night was large but not lively. Fernando Wood & Co. were depressed by the Connecticut elections. Very sad that Charles O’Conor should be found in such company.
We are looking for weighty news from Charleston. We must be repulsed there, I think (barring miracles0, but many sensible people believe that the mass-meeting called for the 11th in Union Square to commemorate that anniversary will have news of the recapture of Sumter to rejoice over. I trust their judgment may be better than mine, and thank Heaven that I have no rudiment of a prophetic gift.
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8. Friday, April 8, 1864--- Sergeant Alexander Downing, of the 11th Iowa Infantry, writes in his journal while on furlough, and expresses a hearty disgust of Copperheadism at home: Another wet day and I stayed at home all day. It is so lonesome that I almost wish I was back in the army; although if I did not have to go back, I could enjoy myself a great deal better. May God hasten the day when this cruel war will be fought to a close, so that the soldiers may return to their homes and friends. What a cruel thing this war is! Think of the thousands of our brave men suffering in the hospitals and in the camps, and many being killed on the battlefield. And yet, think of the everlasting Copperheads in the North, how they sympathize with the South! Such men as they are not fit to be compared with the negroes of the South! I would like to see such men as they are be made to go down there and fight for the South, and be compelled to live on mule beef at that!
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A. Tuesday, April 8, 1862: In Albuquerque, New Mexico, Col. Canby and 1,200 Federal troops, with 4 cannon, approach the outskirts of town. The Confederate garrison also had cannon, and the two sides exchanged rounds of artillery fire for a while, with little damage to either side, until people of the town snuck out to tell Canby that his shells were damaging their homes, and that he should stop.
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A+. In the agony of a nation at war with itself, the Confederate invasion of New Mexico Territory was a minor drama. The Rebels dreamed of access to the Santa Fe Trail and the gold mines of California and Colorado. They dreamed of changing the course of the war and fulfilling their manifest destiny. The Union Army knew it had to deny the realization of those dreams. So then, in the westernmost campaign of the Civil War, 4,000 Union and 3,000 Confederate soldiers engaged in battle, with the Confederacy winning tactical victories with every major battle but still returning to Texas empty-handed, defeated by the harsh countryside and the determined people. More than 280 men died here with their dreams.
http://www.sangres.com/history/civilwarnm.htm#.VwfrFqQrJaQ
A+. Tuesday, April 8, 1862 the so-called "Battle of Albuquerque." It started on April 8, 1862 and ended sometime after darkness fell on April 9th. There was only one casualty: A Union Major, Thomas Duncan, while dodging a bouncing six-pound cannonball on horseback, fell to the ground and seriously injured himself.
But this skirmish was important in the larger scheme of things, for it hastened the withdrawal of Confederate forces from Santa Fe and started the Texans on their way back down the Rio Grande. These Texans had retreated to Santa Fe after losing all their supplies in the Battle of Glorieta Pass.
http://www.dukecityfix.com/profiles/blogs/the-battle-of-albuquerque-what
B. Tuesday, April 8, 1862: Gen. John Pope accepts the surrender of the Confederates at Island No. 10, under Brig. Gen. William W. MacKall after a combined Army and Navy assault which began on march 15, 1862. Pope captured approximately 4,000 men, along with all arms and artillery. The capture of Island No. 10 opened up the Mississippi River to Vicksburg.
At last the major part of Gen. John Pope's army, which now numbered nearly 25,000 had arrived on the Tennessee shore. Brig. Gen. William W. MacKall's force headed south for Tiptonville with Pope's pursuing army in his rear. A few brief rear guard actions were attempted, but the Rebel's would not stand their ground. Outnumbered and outgunned MacKall's force stopped on the western outskirts of Tiptonville the evening of the 7th. The trap was set. Colonel James D. Morgan's Brigade marched past Tiptonville on the river (east) side and occupied the South end of town and Col. Gilbert W. Cumming's Brigade moved in on MacKall from the North. MacKall had nowhere to go with Reelfoot Lake to his west. At 2 A.M. he sent word to the Federals of his surrender.
As for the island itself, early on the 7th word reached its acting commander Captain Andrew Jackson, Jr., the former President's step-son, that Pope had crossed the river. The Confederates quickly set to work trying to plug the river by sinking eight steamers in the channel. By late afternoon many of the heavy artillery companies, together with some of the remaining infantry began crossing Reelfoot Lake by any means available. The island was formally surrendered to Foote at 3:45 A.M. on the morning of the 8th.
Pope reported to Halleck that he had captured 7,076 men, along with all arms and artillery. In reality it was closer to 4000. Contemporary Confederate writers during and after the war disputed Pope's figures, but most historians have accepted them at face value. The dispute is unfortunate, since the campaign was tactically brilliant, Pope's personality flaws aside. On the Confederate side some measure of success has to be considered too. After all, 4000 men kept the Army of the Mississippi at bay for 5 weeks at a time when numbers were critical in the west.
In the final analysis, it was the one-two punch of combined operations that made the Federal Mississippi River campaign so successful. The Confederates never were able to develop a counter strategy. When Island 10 fell the Mississippi River was open all the way to Vicksburg for all practical purposes
http://www.civilwarhome.com/newmadriddescrip.html
B+. Tuesday, April 8, 1862 --- On this date, Gen. John Pope accepts the surrender of the Confederates at Island No. 10, under Gen. Mackall. Union Victory.
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C. Friday, April 8, 1864: Battle of Mansfield (Sabine Crossroads), Louisiana (Red River Expedition)
With Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks' Union army about 150 miles up the Red River. Maj. Gen. Richard Taylor, took it upon himself to strike a blow at the Federals and curb their advance on Shreveport. He established a defensive position just below Mansfield, near Sabine Cross-Roads, an important communications center. On April 8, Banks’s men approached, driving Confederate cavalry before them. For the rest of the morning, the Federals probed the Rebel lines. In late afternoon, Taylor, though outnumbered, decided to attack. His men made a determined assault on both flanks, rolling up one and then another of Banks’s divisions. Finally, about three miles from the original contact, a third Union division met Taylor’s attack at 6:00 pm and halted it after more than an hour's fighting. That night, Taylor unsuccessfully attempted to turn Banks’s right flank. Banks withdrew but met Taylor again on the 9th at Pleasant Hill. Mansfield was the decisive battle of the Red River Campaign, influencing Banks to retreat back toward Alexandria.
Retreating up the river for most of March, Taylor was slowly collecting reinforcements from Texas and Arkansas, while he looked for a place to make a stand. Finally, in April, Taylor chose a clearing just south of Mansfield as an idea location to strike a blow at the Yankees, and possibly turn the tide of the campaign. Fully aware that his Confederates were outnumbered nearly two to one, Taylor said he would "fight Banks here [Mansfield] if he has a million men."
Taylor knew the Union force would not be routed easily. He created a trap, stationing his men across Mansfield Road in an arc formation, just on the north side of an open field. Maj. Gen. John G. Walker’s three brigades were then placed in a battle line approximately 500 yards on either side of the road. Walker’s force was to take the first hit, with Brig. Gen. Alfred Mouton’s two brigades on Walker’s left there to attack once the Union forces were engaged. Brig. Gen. Thomas Green’s cavalry edged out both flanks. Upon the Union’s arrival, Brig. Gen. Thomas Ransom led a brigade forward but, concerned about hidden Confederate forces, halted. Banks ordered an advance that afternoon, but was rebuffed by Brig. Gen. Albert Lee, who insisted their position was too precarious. Banks reconsidered and called for additional cavalry reinforcements. While Banks waited, Taylor sent his infantry and a battery of artillery forward in an effort to draw the Federals into battle.
After the Yankees failed to take the bait, Taylor ordered the advance of the entire Confederate line. Immediately, Mouton’s division encountered difficulties in the center of the line. Though Mouton managed to rally his men, he was mortally wounded. Walker, however, fared better on the Federal left, and forced a Union retreat in that sector. Very soon, the collapse on Banks’ left led to withdrawal along the whole line, and eventually devolved into a rout in which the Yankees left three pieces of artillery in Confederate hands.
Banks, finally understanding the gravity of the situation, called for additional reinforcements. Brig. Gen. Robert Cameron’s division of the Thirteenth Army Corps hastened to the front to bolster the line, but was delayed by the Federals’ own supply trains. After extricating his troops, Cameron established a battle line approximately one-mile south of Moss Plantation. Once more, the Confederates rolled up the Union line. Flush with success, Taylor pushed Walker’s, Polignac’s (who had taken command of Mouton’s division), and Green’s divisions forward, adding to the confusion of the Union retreat.
Federal reinforcements, however, were coming to stem the flood. Without orders, Brig. Gen. William H. Emory quickened his pace to the front, leading his Nineteenth Corps towards the battle. Emory knew a defensible post was vital to support the retreating Federals and to prevent additional Confederate advances. He found a hill bordered by Chatman Bayou Creek and a small orchard, called Pleasant Grove, and decided to make his stand there. He placed approximately 5,000 men across Mansfield Road, forming a wall of soldiers with their rifles aimed at the advancing Confederates. When the Rebels tested this line, Emory’s fire sent them back in a brief retreat.
Refusing to surrender their progress for the day, the Confederates again attacked, this time on the flanks in hopes of rolling up the line as they had done earlier. Seeing this, Emory refused his line, bending it back to repel the Confederates again. Unable to break through, the Rebels retreated as darkness fell.
Though Taylor was frustrated with the outcome of the day, Mansfield was still a strategic victory for the Confederates. Taylor displayed excellent generalship, maneuvering his force to overwhelm individual parts of the larger Union army. Taylor and his Confederates also captured more pieces of Union army equipment and artillery, and sustained approximately 1,000 casualties. In comparison, the Union army sustained 2,800 casualties and was unable to seize nearly as many Confederate supplies.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/mansfield.html
April 8, 1864---Battle of Sabine Crossroads (Mansfield), Louisiana: As Gen. Banks’ Federal troops of the Army of the Gulf march towards Shreveport, Brig. Gen. Albert Lee is out in front with his division of cavalry: two brigades under Lee and Dudley. Gen. Taylor, contrary to Gen. Kirby-Smith’s wishes, wants to advance, and he sends out Gen. Thomas Green’s newly-arrived Texas mounted division ahead to anticipate Banks’ arrival. Taylor has infantry divisions under Alfred Mouton and John G. Walker. He sends to Keachie to order Churchill and Parsons to advance with their divisions, too. It becomes clear to Taylor, after scouting reports come in that the Federals are stretched out in a marching column 20 miles long, that attacking the head of that column would give him better odds, before the long train of Banks’ troops can come up.
As Lee’s’ blue riders move into the clearing at the crossroads, they meet Confederate infantry coming up to strengthen Green’s cavalry, which retires to the flanks, as Gen. Mouton and Gen. Walker place their brigades for action. In the meantime, on Honeycutt Hill, Gen. Landram arrives with his infantry, and he places his troops in the center, with Lee’s cavalry on the flanks. Around 4:00 PM, Taylor sends his troops forward, in a crescent line that overlaps both flanks of the Union salient. Mouton’s division of Louisiana and Texas troops attacks first, and pour through the Federal defenses. Then Taylor sends in Gen. Walker, whose Texans drive Landram and Lee from the hill. Ransom arrives with his division of Federals, followed by Cameron’s division. Ransom is wounded and carried from the field. A second round of attacks at around 7:30 PM drives the Yankees back further. Rebel losses are heavy, and Gen. Mouton is dying on the field, along with a number of ranking officers. Gen . Cameron tries to form a second line, but he is driven, as well. As darkness falls, the Rebels push on, eventually running into a third line formed near Pleasant Hill, with Gen. Emory’s Federal division. The Confederates hit this wall, and come off with losses. Confederate Victory.
Losses: Killed Wounded Captured Total
U.S. 113 581 1,541 2,235
C.S. over 1,000
The Federals also lose over 1,000 horses and mules, 20 cannon, and 156 wagons.
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D. Saturday, April 8, 1865: Battle of Appomattox Station, VA. Maj. Gen. George A. Custer’s division of Union cavalry captured a supply train and twenty-five guns, driving off and scattering the Confederate defenders. This unique action pitted artillery without infantry support against cavalry. Custer captured and burned three trains loaded with provisions for Lee’s army.
In the afternoon of April 8, 1865, four supply trains awaited Lee’s army at Appomattox Station. The news reached Federal Major General George A. Custer and he rapidly pushed his division forward with the 2nd New York Cavalry in the lead. These trains are loaded with supplies—clothes, blankets, equipment, ordnance, medical supplies, and most importantly—food. After moving along the wagon road beside the railroad, Custer’s men approach Appomattox Station from the southeast. The Station consisted of only a few houses with a squad of Confederate cavalry guarding the trains. Fred Blodgett (of the 2nd New York Cavalry) rode up to an engineer, calling out “Hands up,” while leveling his carbine. A call for engineers among Custer’s men went out in order to get the cars away as a large Confederate force was believed to be in the area, and shells began to rain down in the area of the Station.
These shells were fired by Confederate Brigadier General Rueben Lindsay Walker’s Reserve Artillery which had been advanced to the head of Lee’s column in order not to impede the movement of the Army of Northern Virginia. With Walker were approximately 100 cannon, 200 baggage wagons, and the army hospital wagons—all encamped, little expecting to encounter Federal forces. Walker’s men were preparing for supper, and Walker himself was seated on a stump being shaved by one of his men, when the cry went up “Yankees”, “Sheridan” and a short way off a mounted man crying “The Yankees are coming.”
A fourth train which had just arrived, started back for Lynchburg in such a rush that it broke some of the couplings and left most of its cars behind. Walker drew his men into a semi-circle and was supported by the only troops in the vicinity, Talcott’s Engineers (acting as infantry), General Martin Gary’s Cavalry Brigade (7th South Carolina, 7th Georgia, 24th Virginia), and 75 to 100 artillerymen acting as infantry. Encounters developed as Federal skirmishers pushed northeast from the Station.
The ground was not good for fighting a battle, mainly thick shrubbery and dense forest with some trails leading through it, and an unusual fight it would be—artillery against mounted cavalry. The Confederates were hampered be the unexpectedness of the attack, lack of organization, and no central command, which resulted in mass confusion. Custer’s men were not sure what lay ahead and were ordered by him to charge, but the advance became disjointed probes and pushes through the unfriendly terrain. Almer Montague of the 1st Vermont Cavalry commented “we found on entering the woods that the underbrush and vines were too thick for us to march through and keep our organization and we were soon advancing 'every man for himself'. Shells crashing through trees overhead. — But now and then our men were in their rear and up to the mouth of their guns, they poured out such a volley of grape and canister that it was impossible to resist and we were obliged to fall back. Again we rallied and advanced and again were repulsed by grape and canister.”
Martin’s battery fought aggressively on the Confederate left, continuously firing while boldly moving forward. Custer’s men made two or three probing assaults, none very anxious to get too close the walls of iron being thrown at them by the discharges of canister. Meanwhile, the Confederate batteries that were not engaged did their best to escape west towards Lynchburg or north towards Oakville. As darkness was coming on, a final concerted charge was made. A member of the 2nd New York Cavalry recalled that they made a charge down a narrow lane that led to an open field where the Confederate artillery was posted, and coming out of the woods, “A tornado of canister-shot swept over our heads, the next instant we were in the battery.” Montague of the 1st Vermont recalled, “Every man was fighting for himself and fighting like tigers.” He was hit by spent canister, paralyzing his leg for a time.
Some of the discharges of canister found their mark, taking down horses and men, one of them being a future Governor of Vermont, Charles J. Bell, with an iron ball lodged in the back of his hand. In the swirl of fighting, the color bearer of the Washington Artillery of New Orleans, William Davis, “A splendid soldier,” was killed staining the flag with his life blood. The flag was captured by Barney Sheilds of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry. Also killed was Major Sesch Howe of the 1st West Virginia Cavalry. He was the fifth of five family members to die in the war.
Custer’s men captured 25 or 30 guns. As for casualties from this fight, there are no Confederate reports, so the exact total will never be known — perhaps 100 men killed and wounded in some manner, but nearly 1,000 Confederate soldiers captured, including Brigadier General Young Moody, and about 100 wagons. Federal casualties totaled less than 50, but Union surgeons commented that they “had never treated so many extreme cases in so short a fight. The wounds were chiefly made by artillery, and were serious; many patients being badly mangled.”
As the fighting at Appomattox Station subsided, elements of the 15th New York Cavalry, under the direction of Lieutenant Colonel Augustus Root, leapt the fence and gained the Lynchburg-Richmond Stage Road and charged into the village of Appomattox Court House, capturing wagons and teamsters along the way. Jesse Hutchins of the 5th Alabama Battalion was killed in front of the Courthouse building. The cavalry circumvented the Courthouse and galloped towards the George Peers’ house. While passing the Rosser shops a member of the 5th Alabama Battalion put a bullet through Root’s neck, unhorsing him and killing him instantly, those following were met by a volley a line of troops formed in the vicinity of the Peers home.
The New Yorkers retreated back along the stage road, gathering prisoners and shooting mules as they went, thus concluding the engagements on April 8.
The Battle of Appomattox Station commenced shortly after 4 pm and lasted until dusk with varying intensity, although more fighting continued in the direction of Appomattox Court House until probably 9 pm. The success of Custer’s troopers on the evening of April 8, dispersing and capturing Walker’s artillery and securing the Richmond-Lynchburg Stage Road were vital—the Federals now held the high ground west of Appomattox Court House, squarely across Lee’s line of march. With Lee’s line of retreat blocked, his only options on April 9, 1865, was to attack or surrender. Lee elected to attack. He held a Council of War the night of April 8, and it was determined that an assault would be made to open the road, believing that only Federal cavalry blocked the way. However, during the night parts of three Federal Corps had made a forced march and were close at hand to support the Federal cavalry in the morning.
It was the action on April 8, 1865 (the Battle of Appomattox Station), that determined the surrender would take place on April 9th in the village of Appomattox Court House. The advantage of position gained by the action on April 8, gave the Federals control of the strategic ground necessary to force Lee’s surrender.
That night a Federal cavalry brigade under Brevet Brigadier General Charles Smith from General George Crook’s division occupied the ridge ¾ of a mile west of Appomattox Court House—building breast works of dirt and fence rails along the Oakville Road. The brigade consisted of the 1st Maine, 2nd New York Mounted Rifles, and the 6th and 13th Ohio. Smith moved Lieutenant James H. Lord’s two 3-inch Ordnance Rifles (cannon) forward, supported by skirmishers of the 1st Maine. Though foggy, Lord’s men began sending rounds into the Confederate camps with some effect—one shell striking John Ashby of the 12th Virginia Cavalry (now buried in the Confederate Cemetery).
Gordon formed his lines at the western edge of the village with the divisions of General Clement Evans on the left, General James Walker in the center, General Bryan Grimes on the right and General William Wallace’s division was in a second line. At the end of Tibbs lane was General Fitz Lee with the cavalry divisions of Generals Rooney Lee, Tom Rosser and Tom Munford. The infantry and cavalry were supported by General Armistead Long’s artillery.
At 7:50 am, the Confederates, in a left wheel motion, move forward—with the “usual rebel yell.” A veteran of the 1st North Carolina Sharp Shooters said he never saw one so “Magnificently executed as this.” Perhaps realizing the opportunity to secure the lightly supported guns of Lord’s battery and in the forefront of the wheel Roberts’ Brigade of the 4th and 7th North Carolina Cavalry drew sabers, charged and captured the cannon and some of Lord’s men. Despite the capture of his guns, Lord was cited for gallant and meritorious service and promoted to Major for his bold stand which delayed the Confederate advance.
Smith’s line was soon outflanked. Rooney Lee’s men stayed with the infantry wheel while Rosser and Munford pressed forward (west) hoping to get on the Federal flank and gain the Stage Road in their rear. Meanwhile, General George Crook directed General Ranald McKenzie’s small division of cavalry from the Army of the James, and a brigade under Colonel Samuel B. Young, to move up to support Smith on the left. They were met in turn by Rooney Lee’s Cavalry and likewise driven back, along with Smith. The Confederate infantry wheeled and opened the stage road and faced south while William Cox’s North Carolina brigade advanced along the stage road to the west.
Now, the Army of the James arrived on the field, led by Brigadier General Robert Foster’s division. Colonel Thomas Osborn’s Brigade advanced west along the stage road with the 62nd, 67th Ohio, 39th Illinois, 199th and 85th Pennsylvania Infantry, followed by Colonel George Dandy’s brigade which included the 11th Maine Infantry which moved to support the left flank of the 62nd—but not before the Confederates forces tore into the 62nd’s flank (losing over 50 men killed, wounded, and captured). The 11th Maine charged out of the woods and heading straight for the Confederate guns when it was attacked in the flank as well. The 11th Maine's Colonel John Hill went down wounded and was temporarily captured. In the charge the 11th was swept by canister, losing a regimental favorite—Moses Sherman—known as “Little Moustache.” The 11th Maine suffered over 60 casualties. Men of the 199th Pennsylvania captured a Confederate 20-pounder. As Confederate artillery fired from the ridge, a shell passed through the Coleman house mortally wounding a slave woman named Hannah Reynolds.
The weight of the Federal numbers began to tell as Brigadier General John Turner’s Division from the 24th Corps arrived on Foster's right flank as well as Colonel William Woodward's brigade of United States Colored Troops (25th Corps), filling a gap between the two divisions. A second brigade of United States Colored Troops under Colonel Ulysses Doubleday also arrived on the field. Confederate General Gordon, at some point that morning sent back a message: “Tell General Lee that my command has been fought to a frazzle and unless Longstreet can unite in the movement, or prevent these forces from coming upon my rear, I cannot long go forward.”
On the right of the Army of the James, from the south, came Major General Charles Griffin’s 5th Corps, slanting north at an angle across the fields toward Appomattox Court House, advancing through the Trent and Sears properties and encountering Confederate skirmishers. On the extreme right of the 5th Corps skirmish line is the 185th New York Infantry and 198th Pennsylvania Infantry commanded Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain. Chamberlain’s men, under fire from batteries near the edge of the village (among them the Richmond Howitzers and the Salem Flying Artillery) advanced to the vicinity of the Mariah Wright house when a white flag approached. A small foray west of the village was made by 25 men of the 4th and 14th North Carolina Infantry as a delaying action, while the remainder of Gordon’s Corps retreated and reformed on the east side of the shallow Appomattox River.
As the 5th Corps advanced, Custer and Brigadier General Thomas Devin’s divisions moved behind it—east on the LeGrand Road—putting additional pressure on the Confederate left flank as the Confederate infantry withdrew through the village. After a white flag had appeared on Custer’s front, General Martin Gary’s cavalry brigade disavowed the truce and attacks Custer’s advance, but the attack was quickly beaten back, suffering losses.
Some brief skirmishing occurred about two miles west of Appomattox Court House near the Widow Robertson’s where some of Munford’s Confederate cavalry regained the stage road and engaged Federal troopers under Brigadier General Henry Davies, now supported by McKenzie and Young. After some brief clashes the Confederate cavalry which found itself outside the tightening noose, headed for Lynchburg.
In the rear of Lee’s army lay the bulk of the Federal Army of the Potomac—more than 30,000 men of the 2nd and 6th Corps. Lee was effectively surrounded; he was “check-mated.” The horrific final battle that many feared did not come to pass as the advantage of position gained in the action on April 8, combined with further movements on April 9, gave Grant’s forces control of the strategic ground necessary to force Lee’s surrender. Casualties of these two battles have been estimated at approximately 500 total killed and wounded (possibly higher), and over 1,000 men captured in the two days of fighting.
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/appomattox-station/appomattox-station-history/the-battles-of-appomattox.html
FYI LTC Stephen C. LTC (Join to see) SSgt (Join to see) SSgt Robert Marx SPC (Join to see) SGT (Join to see) 1stSgt Eugene HarlessSPC Maurice Evans SFC George Smith SSG William Jones SFC Derrick Harris SFC (Join to see) SFC Randy Purham SSG Pete Fleming SSG Michael Scott SSG Donald H "Don" Bates SGT Mark Anderson SGT Michael Thorin SGT David A. 'Cowboy' Groth Sgt William Biggs

Custer the consummate Cavalry Officer!