The Last Positions

The Last Positions is a Virginia historical marker in Appomattox County, dedicated 1997.

Oakville Road, 1000 feet north of onramp to 460 West

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On 8 Apr. 1865, Gen. Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, retreating from Petersburg toward Pittsylvania County, reached the hills to the northeast. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and his Federal army, pursuing Lee to the south, blocked him here. At dawn on 9 April, Palm Sunday, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon's corps, with Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry, assaulted the Union line. Initially successful, the attempted breakout failed when additional Union infantry arrived on the field. That afternoon, Lee rode through the lines here to surrender his army.

TodayHistorical map

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Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library

Historical maps covering this location

1859 · Virginia (Herman Boye, 1859) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1864 · Middle Virginia and North Carolina (Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library)
1865 · Central Virginia showing Lieut Gen'l U.S. Grant's Campaign and Marches. (David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1869 · Colton's West Virginia (1869) (Barry Lawrence Ruderman Map Collection, Stanford Libraries)
1892 · Appomattox, Virginia (USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection)

Middle Virginia and North Carolina, 1864, covering the location of The Last Positions, with a pin at the marker's coordinates — Middle Virginia and North Carolina, 1864, covering this location. Digital Commonwealth, Boston Public Library. The pin is ours, placed from the marker's coordinates.

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The Last Positions

Historical maps covering this location

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