On the day preceding the surrender at Appomattox, the last cavalry engagement of the Eastern Theater took place at Appomattox Station. Identifying an opportunity to neutralize and capture an entire Confederate artillery brigade with mixed stragglers, Custer’s Cavalry Brigade launched a daring attack.  The first Federal units captured unguarded supply trains.  By night, after 4-5 hours of combat, Custer troopers broke the Confederate defenses – comprised most of artillery, dismounted artillerymen armed with muskets and rifle muskets, dismounted cavalry, and a large contingent of exhausted infantry stragglers who were pressed into the fight. Tragically, up to 32 of Custer’s men lost their lives outright and a further 18 died of wounds during the final full day of fighting in Virginia.  They did, however, capture over 1,000 prisoners, prevent supplies from reaching Lee’s army, destroyed the railroad tracks that drew Lee to the area initially, and provided more motivation for him to surrender on the 9th.

This grouping was acquired by The Horse Soldier in 1995 from a private museum at Appomattox as part of a large collection of artifacts from Lee’s surrender and the Battle of Appomattox Station. These relics come from the vicinity of the original Artillery Park and Wagon Train site near Appomattox Station and include: fired Bormann fuse with iron under plug, 12 C.S. iron case shot, 6 Hotchkiss artillery shell fragments, 3 friction primers, 9 fired “minies”, 5 fired C.S. Sharps carbine bullets, 1 fired U.S. Sharps carbine bullet, 1 partially melted bullet, 7 Spencer carbine bullets, 1 burst Spencer cartridge case, 6 unidentifiable fired carbine bullets. A modern paper label is included but some bullets are misidentified.

While most relics are remnants of a great fight, these stand in stark contrast as artifacts of the end of formal hostilities in Virginia. After years of terrible conflict, these items are a veritable snapshot of the moments when relative peace was becoming a possibility.

Any collection would benefit from the addition of these Appomattox surrender relics as a feature or a bookend to a collection spanning the Civil War.  [jet] [ph:L]

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