The Last Positions

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

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.

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David Rumsey Map Collection, Stanford Libraries

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under a mile from where William Gabby lived in the 1760s

what this marker records spans 1777 to 1789, overlapping William Gabby's years here

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The Last Positions

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