| Battle of Namozine Church | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 United States |
 Confederate States | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| George Armstrong Custer[1] | Fitzhugh Lee[1] | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 1,000[1] | 700[1] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 95 killed and wounded | Unknown killed, 15 wounded, 350 captured | ||||||
The Battle of Namozine Church was an engagement in Amelia County, Virginia, between Union Army and Confederate States Army forces that occurred on April 3, 1865, during the Appomattox Campaign of the American Civil War. The battle was the first engagement between units of General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia after that army's evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, on April 2, 1865, and units of the Union Army (Army of the Shenandoah, Army of the Potomac and Army of the James) under the immediate command of Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, who was still acting independently as commander of the Army of the Shenandoah, and under the overall direction of Union General-in-Chief Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant. The forces immediately engaged in the battle were brigades of the cavalry division of Union Brig. Gen. and Brevet Maj. Gen. George Armstrong Custer, especially the brigade of Colonel and Brevet Brig. Gen. William Wells, and the Confederate rear guard cavalry brigades of Brig. Gen. William P. Roberts and Brig. Gen. Rufus Barringer and later in the engagement, Confederate infantry from the division of Maj. Gen. Bushrod Johnson.
The engagement signaled the beginning of the Union Army's relentless pursuit of the Confederate forces (Army of Northern Virginia and Richmond local defense forces) after the fall of Petersburg and Richmond after the Third Battle of Petersburg (sometimes known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg or Fall of Petersburg), which led to the near disintegration of Lee's forces within 6 days and the Army of Northern Virginia's surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865. Capt. Tom Custer, the general's brother, was cited at this battle for the first of two Medals of Honor that he received for actions within four days.