Tag: Farmville VA

Wikipedia says: Farmville is a town in Prince Edward and Cumberland counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. It is the county seat of Prince Edward County.

Farmville developed near the headwaters of the Appomattox River in central Virginia; the waterway was long its main transportation access to other markets. In the 19th century, a railroad was constructed here.

Civil War

Confederate General Robert E. Lee retreated through Farmville as he escaped the Union Army. Farmville was the object of the Confederate Army’s desperate push to get rations to feed its soldiers near the end of the American Civil War. The rations had originally been destined for Danville, but an alert quartermaster ordered the train back to Farmville. Despite an advance of the cavalry commanded by Fitzhugh Lee, the Confederate Army was checked by the arrival of Union cavalry commanded by Gen. Philip Sheridan and two divisions of infantry. General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia found itself soon surrounded. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.