High Bridge was a historic railroad bridge located in Prince Edward County, Virginia. It spanned the Appomattox River valley about six miles downstream from the town of Farmville. This bridge, part of the Southside Railroad between Petersburg and Lynchburg was built through Farmville between Burkeville and Pamplin City and was completed in 1954, one decade before the end of the Civil War.
The bridge was composed of two passageways – the rail portion on the top of the spans and the wagon bridge below the spans. General Lee was pushing his men across this bridge to the northern shore of the Appomattox River overnight on 6 April 1865. By morning, the Federal troops had come within sight of the bridge, and they could see the Confederates at the other end. The following account of the capture of High Bridge is from Days and Events by Thomas L. Livermore, Colonel of the 18th New Hampshire Volunteers: We moved after the enemy at 5:30 a.m. and did not come up with him until we got to High Bridge. We were riding with General Barlow’s division near its head, when our skirmishers opened the ball and we, following them closely soon came out upon the bluff which overlooked the valley of the Appomattox. The valley was half a mile wide. The river, which was unfordable and not over a hundred feet wide, ran close to our bank. The railroad bridge, called High Bridge, rested on twenty or more piers, each 125 feet high, and thus spanned the valley from bluff to bluff. The valley was clear of trees and we saw everything that transpired in it. At our end of the bridge, where we first came in sight of the valley, was a strong earthen fort with a number of guns which the revels had injured as much as possible in a brief time; a hundred yards in front the wooden bridge which crossed the river was afire, and he enemy’s skirmishers essayed to prevent ours from extinguishing the fire. At the farther side of the valley, the revel column was climbing up on the bluff and disappearing from sight, and the great railroad bridge was burning furiously at their end. A portion of General Barlow’s column hurried down to the small bridge and, forcing a passage, extinguished the flames and saved the bridge, and then our skirmishers deployed on the other side of the river and slowly drove the enemy’s skirmishers across the plain, eveyr man in both lines being in plain sight of us, so that we saw each shot and each man drop and every movement, a grander display than it is possible to produce in any amphitheater of these days.1
Image: High Bridge over the Appomattox River near Farmville, Virginia. Photographed in 1865 by Timothy H. O’Sullivan during repairs following its burning during the war.
- National Park Civil War Series, The Campaign to Appomattox
(Eastern National Park and Monument Association, 1995; reprint 1998), 12 (page citation is to the reprint edition).
