Following the victories at Sailor’s Creek on April 6, 1865, and the morning of April 7, the 2nd Corps of the Army of the Potomac continued to press the retreating Confederates until they entrenched north of Farmville in the vicinity of Cumberland Church.  The 2nd Corps divisions of Generals Nelson Miles and Regis de Trobriand, who had replaced the wounded General Gershom Mott the previous day, eventually faced tightly packed formations of General William Mahone’s division and General John B. Gordon’s Corps supported Colonel William Poague’s Artillery, with General Fitzhugh Lee’s cavalry protecting the left flank.  After receiving heavy and deadly artillery fire, Federal skirmishers found an opening in the Confederate line and in advance at about 1 pm pushing east of the Jamestown Road men of the 64th NY infantry pierced the Confederate line just south of Poague’s position and captured guns of Captain Arthur Williams’ North Carolina Battery. Seeing this at a distance from Blanton’s blacksmith shop, General Lee decided to lead troops close by to retake the position, but the troops nearby would not let Lee go with them.  General William G. Lewis and his brigade hurriedly made for the breakthrough. Additional help came from Colonel David G. Cowand’s Brigade of North Carolinans from General Bryan Grimes’ division.  The two brigades pushed back the 64th NY and recaptured the guns before they could be removed from the field. Confederate General Lewis suffered a severe wound in the fighting that day. Taken to the hospital at the Hobson house, he was captured the next day.

Following this action. General Miles moved his division further northwest of the Jamestown Road, while General de Trobiand’s division occupied the ground south of the road. General Bryon R. Pierce’s brigade began taking fire from the entrenched riflemen of General John Gordon’s corps, while the brigades of Colonel Russell Shepherd and Gen. Robert McAllister built protective trenches overlooking Bad Luck Creek, and contented themselves with skirmish firing as the multiple rows of trenches made the area suicidal for an assault. Around 4 p.m. to the northwest, lured in by a vulnerable wagon train in the distance, Miles determined to launch another attack against Mahone’s left flank a little after 4 p.m. Some Colonel George Scott’s First Brigade with fixed bayonet’s actually reached the Confederate earthworks, but were driven back by the arrival of General G. T. Anderson’s Brigade from Longstreet’s Corps.  The famed 5th New Hampshire Infantry lost their colors during this assault. Miles division counted 424 men killed, wounded and missing since starting out that morning. No reports tabulate the Confederate losses in the engagement.

On the south side of the Jamestown Road, de Trobiand’s men, after receiving heavy artillery fire, also confront well entrenched Confederates of Gordon’s Corps in multiple lines on the rising ground beyond Bad Luck Creek. The steep sides of the creek itself would make any Union soldier reaching it an easy mark for the Confederate riflemen dug in perhaps 50 yards away should they try to climb out. Though de Trobiand was a fighter, and dispositions were made for an attack, he recognized that the slaughter of his men would have no benefit.  He pressed a “heavy skirmish” line forward and secured some prisoners that attested to the strength of the Confederate position.  De Trobiand’s troops engaged in skirmishing and exchanges of artillery fire for the remainder of the day resulting in two men killed and sixteen wounded. That evening General Grant’s first letter to General Lee requesting his surrender passed through Miles’ lines and was received by General Lee at Cumberland Church. Lee composed his response to Grant, opening three days of correspondence between the two men prior to the surrender.

Touted as the “Last victory of the Army of Northern Virginia”, it was also the last serious action for the Second Corps and the Army of the Potomac.  Though Lee’s army slipped away during the night, the need for it to hunker down behind entrenchments for a half a day ultimately delayed their march West, resulting in the surrender at Appomattox Court House two days later.