John Carvell Arnold
Corporal John C. Arnold died at the Battle of Sailor’s Creek. He was in Company I of the 49th regiment of the Pennsylvania infantry. The 31-year-old had mustered in fourteen months earlier, in February 1864. The fatal battle occurred on 6 April 1865 and was the last engagement in which his regiment fought. Three days later, Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House.
Arnold was part of the Third Brigade of the First Division of the Sixth Corps of the Army of the Potomac. He had been promoted to corporal a month earlier, on March 10. He and his men were deployed at the center of the line of assault at Little Sailor’s Creek (37.305387, -78.225988), an “insignificant stream,” according to Ulysses S. Grant, which was running high because of recent rain. Arnold’s last moments, in the late afternoon and early evening, were spent in extreme effort. He and his men marched at double quick time over plowed fields and rough ground. His division commander reported that even though everyone was “greatly fatigued,” they formed their front with the “greatest spirit” a third of a mile from their foes. This was the ultimate pursuit of Lee’s army as it fled from Petersburg. Months of stalemate in southeastern Virginia were about to come to a dramatic conclusion.
The assault came after 6:00 PM. By 7:00, over three thousand Confederate troops had surrendered. But in the interim, John Arnold fell.
The fight in the creek valley was brutal, with Arnold’s brigade moving in first after a thirty-minute Union artillery barrage. It was a “marshy and difficult stream,” according to corps commander Horatio Wright, in some places over the shoulders of the infantrymen. As they waded across, they came under heavy fire from enemy rifles. Once free of the creek, Arnold and his comrades had to mount a gentle slope of open ground, perfect for the defense up on the low ridge ahead of them. When the Union forces threatened to overwhelm Stapleton Crutchfield’s Confederate position, the southerners suprised everyone by counterattacking. The field erupted in a hotly contested fight. Arnold’s unit had to fall back when they were flanked on their left, exposing them to heavy fire from the west and south. They were even caught by their own artillery firing from the other side of the creek. It was untenable. There was no protection for Arnold’s regiment, and he was hit.
Arnold was one of 16 men killed from the 49th Pennsylvania at Sailor’s Creek.
In the image above, taken by Phill Greenwalt of the Emerging Civil War site, we’re looking from the Confederate point of view. The field in the foreground is where Arnold’s regiment met its stiffest resistance.