Shared by Jim Godburn, as Guest Blogger.

The rolling hills and quiet streams of Sailor’s Creek Battlefield lay in quiet tranquility today. The four seasons, slow in their pace, bring annual change to the landscape, enhancing its beauty.

Our hiking trails offer visitors a chance to stretch their legs, observe and experience the plant life, wildlife and terrain of our beautiful park as well as the opportunity to reflect, as they will, on the events which transformed these fields and woods from rural farmland into hallowed ground.

Sailor's Creek Battlefield covered in luminaries in memory of American Veterans 

The forces that collided here in the waning days of the American Civil War participated in savage fighting that destroyed over one quarter of Robert E. Lee’s Army, hastening the end of the bloodiest of all American wars only 72 hours later and 45 miles to the west at Appomattox Court House.

The luminary event takes place each year on or near Veteran's Day

in remembrance of all those who have served

On April 6, 1865, fighting erupted at three different locations along the roads, feeder streams and creeks of this watershed. The weather, cold and rainy, had swollen the streams and made travel along the roads through the area difficult for both man and beast alike. Wagons bogged down in the quagmires passing as roads, taxing the endurance of the horses and mules pulling them. Weary, hungry men waited in numb anticipation for the next round of fighting, perhaps hoping it would be the last time they were called upon to join with the enemy in this brutal life and death struggle.

In the muddy fields behind the Hillsman House, as the afternoon grew long, thousands of Federal infantrymen waited nervously as twenty pieces of artillery near the house rained shrapnel on Lee’s soldiers gathered 800 yards away on the far side of Little Sailor’s Creek. In the eerie quiet following the 30-minute bombardment, blue clad figures moved as one down the hill toward the water. Men on both sides fell as the Federals made their way to and across the creek. The fate of all lay on the south bank and hillside as soldiers from both armies closed in desperate combat. By dark it was over.

A personal dedication for a loved one long lost but not forgotten

It’s only proper on this Veteran’s Day that we remember the men who fought here in the last major engagement of the War. The trail that we illuminate marks the path of the men who gathered here in grim desperation and contested this ground--The men who went on to be killed, wounded, captured or survived to be the victor or the vanquished at Appomattox.

The Park is located in Central Virginia. Drive Time: Northern Virginia, three to three and a half hours; Richmond, one to one and a half hours; Tidewater/Norfolk/Virginia Beach, two and a half to three hours; Roanoke, two hours. Click here for Google map directions.

For overnight accommodations we recommend nearby Twin Lakes State Park or Bear Creek Lake State Park. Call 800-933-7275 to check availability or make cabin reservations.