April 2, 1865: The Battle of Sutherland’s Station
As dawn broke on April 2, 1865, Union forces pressed all along the lines at Petersburg. Explosions and musketry echoed to the east where the 9th Corps battered Fort Mahone, while to the west, Major General Andrew A. Humphreys’ 2nd Corps prepared for its own assaults.
Facing them along Hatcher’s Run and White Oak Road was Major General Henry Heth’s Confederate division—a patchwork line of Carolinians and Georgians holding stubbornly behind earthen redoubts.
At 6:00 a.m., Humphreys ordered a general advance.
Brigadier General William Hays struck at the Crow House redoubt beside Hatcher’s Run. To his left, Brevet Major General Gershom Mott hurled his men at the Confederate line opposite his front. The fighting was fierce in the early morning fog, as men fell among tangled brush and abatis, but by 8:30 a.m., the Union 2nd Corps had seized the Confederate works from Burgess’s Mill to Claiborne Road.
Heth’s defenders pulled back in ragged columns, their objective clear: Sutherland’s Station on the vital South Side Railroad, Petersburg’s last remaining lifeline.
Miles in Pursuit
Meanwhile, under orders from General Ulysses S. Grant, Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles’s division had been sent west the night before to support Philip Sheridan at Five Forks. Finding no enemy there at dawn, Miles turned his veterans back east along White Oak Road, sending word to Humphreys that the Confederate works were abandoned.
Humphreys, seeing the retreat, quickly ordered Mott, Hays, and Miles to pursue Heth’s fleeing troops toward Sutherland’s Station.
But then came a wrench in the plan.
About 9:00 a.m., General George Meade rode forward. He disagreed with the chase. With Petersburg on the verge of falling, Meade wanted Humphreys to pull the 2nd Corps south to connect with Horatio Wright’s 6th Corps.
Humphreys reluctantly obeyed, riding west himself to call off the pursuit.
A Command Tangle
On Claiborne Road, Humphreys encountered Sheridan.
Sheridan still hoped to use Miles to bag the retreating Confederates. But when told of Meade’s orders, he deferred command. Humphreys said he left Miles with Sheridan. Sheridan would later say he “declined command to avoid wrangles.”
Caught between orders, Miles never made clear who commanded him that day—but he pressed on alone with about 8,000 men in four brigades, determined to strike the retreating Confederates at Sutherland’s Station.
The Confederate Stand
Confederate commander Henry Heth had left his lines in Petersburg to replace the fallen A.P. Hill, handing over the defense at Sutherland’s Station to Brigadier General John R. Cooke.
Cooke’s force was thin: four battered brigades of about 1,200 men from Heth’s division, a fraction of their former strength.
They quickly threw up a slim line of earthworks half a mile long along Cox Road, parallel to the South Side Railroad. Their position was carefully chosen—slight high ground, open fields with 700 yards of deadly approach, and a refused left flank near Ocran Methodist Church.
Their mission was critical: protect the vital supply trains waiting at Sutherland’s Station.
Miles Attacks
Miles arrived to find the Confederates well entrenched. Confident nonetheless, he launched Colonel Henry J. Madill’s brigade straight at Cooke’s and Hyman’s (Galloway’s) positions.
But Madill’s men were exhausted after marching all night and all morning. Confederate musketry tore into their ranks. Madill himself fell badly wounded. The first assault failed.
Refusing to retreat, Miles regrouped. He ordered a second charge, throwing Colonel Clinton McDougall’s and Colonel Robert Nugent’s brigades against MacRae’s and McGowan’s positions.
Again the Confederates repulsed them, McDougall himself wounded in the press of fire.
The Final Assault
For hours the fighting paused as Union officers realigned their lines. Miles planned one last, massive push.
At 4:00 p.m., he unleashed his final attack.
A strong skirmish line led the way, hugging the ground and driving in Confederate pickets. Behind them came MacDougall’s, Nugent’s, and Lieutenant Colonel John Ramsey’s brigades.
They struck the Confederate right like a hammer blow.
Cooke’s men, too few and too weary, could not hold. The Confederate line buckled from east to west. McGowan’s men broke first, triggering a collapse all along Cox Road.
Union Victory
The scene turned chaotic. Union troops flooded the Confederate works, capturing 600 prisoners, two cannons, and a battle flag.
Cooke’s own brigade on the far end managed to withdraw in better order than most, but hundreds of Confederates simply ran for the Appomattox River, retreating in disorder toward Amelia Court House.
The Union victory at Sutherland’s Station permanently severed the South Side Railroad, Petersburg’s last supply line.
Aftermath
By the time the fighting ended, Miles’s division was spent. They had marched and fought for nearly 24 hours straight and were too exhausted to pursue.
At 2:30 p.m., General Meade, hearing that Miles was struggling, had ordered Humphreys to send Hays’s division back to support him.
But when Humphreys and Hays arrived near Sutherland’s Station, the battle was over.
Miles had won—alone, with no real help from Sheridan or the rest of the 2nd Corps.
Miles reported 366 casualties in the hard fighting. Confederate losses beyond the 600 prisoners are unknown.
That night, Miles and Hays camped along the ruined railroad, guarding the severed artery that doomed Petersburg and cut Lee’s army off from vital supplies.
Humphreys would later write that if his entire 2nd Corps had been allowed to keep pressing west that morning, they might have captured the whole Confederate force at Sutherland’s Station.
But the die was cast. Lee’s army was now in retreat, limping west toward Appomattox, where the final act of the war would soon be played.
