Even with the fall of Richmond and the Army of Northern Virginia reeling, Confederate quartermasters were able to assemble several trains and dozens of wagons full of desperately needed supplies for Lee's army. They arrived at a handful of buildings known as Appomattox Station on April 8, 1865 and awaited the rebel troops.
Unbeknownst to the Confederates, Union cavalry had learned of the supply trains and were determined to capture them before Lee could get there. Gen. George Custer's troopers, reinforced by Union infantry, engaged the Confederate forces and drove them off in a battle that lasted into the moonlit night.
That night Lee held what would be his final war council with his senior generals. Unaware that Custer had moved or destroyed the supplies that were captured that day, and that far more Federal troops were as close as they were, Lee and his generals agreed to a morning attack to recapture the supplies and then break out of the tightening Union noose.
On April 8, President Lincoln left the comfort of the River Queen, came ashore, and with a group including his wife, visited the Depot Field Hospital. The Depot Field Hospital, with 10,000 beds, was the largest of four military hospitals at City Point. The hospital consisted of 90 stockade pavilions, 50 by 20 feet in size, and 452 tents during the winter but more tents were added by the time of the President’s visit. Those patients with the ability to move about waited in a line outside of each facility and had a chance to shake the President’s hand. Bedridden patients each received a personal visit by Lincoln. The soldiers, according to hospital attendant Wilbur Fisk, were “pleased.. beyond measure” but Fisk also pointed out that it appeared that Lincoln “took almost as much pleasure in honoring the boys, as the boy did in receiving the honor from him.”
Lincoln’s compassion was evident throughout as he did his best to encourage the suffering soldiers but, on at least one occasion, was brought to tears at the sight of ghastly wounds and mutilated bodies. By day’s end, the exhausted President had shaken the hands of over 6,000 patients, including sick and wounded Confederate soldiers.
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