Appomattox Station is located in the town of Appomattox, Virginia. Before the Civil War, the railroad (Southside Railroad today, a part of the Norfolk Southern), bypassed Appomattox Court House village (then known as "Clover Hill", now known as the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park) which was built southeast about three miles in 1850. Commercial life tended to congregate at Appomattox Station, a town first named "Nebraska, Virginia", then "West Appomattox" until 1895. It is known today as Appomattox, Virginia.[1]
There is a marker at Appomattox Station that explains the final blow to General Robert E. Lee at the Battle of Appomattox Station, 1865:
You are standing near the site of Appomattox Station Depot on the South Side Railroad. Here, on the afternoon of April 8, 1865, Union cavalrymen under Gen. George A. Custer dealt the Army of Northern Virginia a final blow. First, they captured trains loaded with supplies for Confederates, then they attacked and captured Gen. R. Lindsay Walker’s wagons and artillery in bivouac half a mile to the north.
When word of this disaster reached Gen. Robert E. Lee at his headquarters a few miles northeast, he knew the end was near. He and Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had exchanged letters on the subject of surrender, and Lee had suggested a meeting between the lines the next day. With Union horsemen now blocking his escape route, Lee’s only hope lay in punching through them with a combined force of infantry and cavalry, and he scheduled a breakout attack for dawn. If it failed, or if he found Federal infantry in front of him as well, then he would have no choice but to surrender.[2]