Amelia Springs
Two Days of Action
Union cavalry under Gen. Henry E. Davies, Jr. left Gen. Philip H. Sheridan’s column near Jetersville on April 5, 1865, on a reconnaissance mission against the Army of Northern Virginia. Davies swept by here, rode through Paineville, and four Miles further on encountered Gen. G.W. Custis Lee’s wagon train, which he attacked and destroyed. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry in turn attacked part of Davies’ command at Paineville and pursued it past this place through Amelia Springs.
The next day, when the Confederates left Amelia Court House for Farmville, Federal infantry caught up with them here. Gen. John B. Gordon’s corps, serving as the rear guard, held off the Union attacks long enough for most of the army and the baggage train to escape west, where disaster awaited the Confederates at Sailor’s Creek.
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Black Confederates
When Davies attacked Custis Lee's wagon train near Paineville, he encountered gray-uniformed African-American troops who defended the train before surrendering. Described by a Southern officer as "the only company of colored troops in the Confederate service," the soldiers had been recruited in Richmond after February 1865 and promised their freedom. The Paineville clash is one of the few documented engagements in Virginia involving organized black Confederate troops. They symbolized the desperate straits of the Confederacy, which had officially opposed arming blacks.
Marker is on Amelia Springs Road (Virginia Route 642) 0.2 miles south of St. James Road, on the right when traveling north.
Courtesy hmdb.org
