Sailor's Creek

Check out our collection of photos from the Confederacy's Black Thursday.

(12 photos in gallery)

Target Property at Sailor's Creek

Chris Calkins

The Civil War Trust is currently working to preserve this 130-acre portion of the Sailor's Creek battlefield where, on April 6, 1865, Union cavalry attacked and overwhelmed the entrenched divisions of Bushrod Johnson and George Pickett.

Marshall's Crossroads

Chris Calkins

Our target tract at Sailor's Creek is within sight of Marshall's Crossroads, a critical road juncture along Lee's retreat route. Finding themselves trapped here on April 6, Richard Anderson's Confederates entrenched in this vicinity. The Trust's target property is just beyond the horizon.

Charge of the 2nd West Virginia Cavalry

Keith Rocco, www.keithrocco.com

In his painting, "Marshall's Crossroads," artist Keith Rocco recreates the 2nd West Virginia's charge that broke through the Confederate line--and drove fleeing Southerners across the land the Trust is working to acquire.

Saved Land at Sailor's Creek

Bill Hopkins

In 2009, the Civil War Trust saved a 35-acre tract at Sailor's Creek where Col. Peter Stagg's all-Michigan cavalry brigade attacked the left flank of Joseph B. Kershaw's division along Little Sailor's Creek.

Hillsman House

Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

In the late afternoon of April 6, the Union Sixth Corps under Horatio Wright, arrived here on the farm of James Hillsman and prepared to assault Richard Ewell's Confederates across Sailor's Creek.

Ewell's Position

Tommy Warshaw

Trailing Anderson's troops at Marshall's Crossroads, Gen. Richard Ewell's corps--composed mostly of garrison troops from Richmond--formed a defensive position here. Little Sailor's Creek sits at the bottom of the near treeline.

Federal Artillery

Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

Around 5:15PM on April 6, twenty pieces of Union artillery arrayed in front of the Hillsman House began a thirty-minute bombardment of Ewell's troops. With their ammunition trains elsewhere, the Confederates had no ordinance with which to answer the Federal guns.

Historic View of Sailor's Creek

National Park Service

This 1936 image shows the Sailor's Creek battlefield as viewed from Ewell's position. The building in the distance is the Hillsman House.

Wright's Assault

Joe Sokohl, www.sokohl.com

After thirty minutes of shelling, the Federal Sixth Corps marched down this slope toward the banks of Little Sailor's Creek, on the other side of which waited Ewell's men.

Victory or Death

Keith Rocco, www.keithrocco.com

Overwhelmed by the Federal assault, the Savannah Volunteer Guard makes a futile stand at Sailor's Creek. Those Confederates who were not killed or wounded soon surrendered.