On April 6, Longstreet dispatched 1,200 Confederate cavalry under Major General Thomas L. Rosser to protect the bridges from Union raiders.

[7] While Washburn prepared to set fire to the bridge, three brigades of Confederate cavalrymen arrived and conducted a dismounted attack against the Union infantry, which was waiting near the Watson farmhouse, about half mile to the south.

Hearing sounds of battle, Washburn and his men rejoined the infantry, and unaware that he was facing two divisions of cavalry, Read ordered a mounted charge by the 4th Massachusetts.

Humphreys's second division under Brigadier General Francis C. Barlow, including the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment, charged the burning structure and saved a large section of the railroad bridge, preventing major damage.

They crossed the lower wagon bridge to move on Lee's flank and forced the hungry Confederates to resume their retreat before re-provisioning themselves.

However, the second battle, in which Union troops successfully extinguished the fire, crossed the bridge, and forced the Confederates to flee along a specific path, proved to be a decisive tactical victory, and may have shortened the war by several days.

[12] As a result, Lee was forced to continue his march to the west under pressure, depriving some of his men the opportunity to receive rations from Farmville that they desperately needed.

On the night of April 7, Lee received from Grant a letter proposing that the Army of Northern Virginia should surrender.

The next morning, Lee's troops moved toward Appomattox Station, 25 miles (40 km) west, where a ration train was expected to be waiting.