2015 First-Class Forever Stamp,The Civil War Sesquicentennial, 1865: The Battle of Five Forks

U.S. # 4980
2015 49¢ Battle of Five Forks

Civil War: 1865

Value: 49¢ 1-ounce first-class letter rate

Issued:  April 9, 2015

First Day City:  Appomattox, VA – the site of the Confederate surrender

Type of Stamp: Commemorative
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America for Sennett Security Products
Method: Offset printed in double-sided sheets of 72 with six panes of 12 per sheet
Perforation: Serpentine Die Cut 11 

Self-Adhesive
Quantity Printed: 5,400,000 stamps

Sheridan Wins Battle Of Five Forks

On April 1, 1865, Philip Sheridan earned a key Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks.

By the spring of 1865, Robert E. Lee’s army had been under siege for nearly a year. Ulysses S. Grant’s trenches stretched for 25 miles from Petersburg to Richmond, Virginia. The Union ranks were steadily reinforced and its troops well fed, while the dwindling Confederate Army was desperate for food, clothing, and ammunition.

On March 25, Lee attacked a portion of the Union trenches, hoping to break the siege. When he failed, Grant mobilized his men and sent General Philip Sheridan after Lee’s army.

The Confederates stopped Sheridan’s advance, but their supply line ran through a small intersection named Five Forks. Aware of the implications if the line was severed, Lee ordered General George Pickett to “hold Five Forks at all hazards.”

On April 1, 1865 Sheridan’s troops attacked. Pickett was having lunch with his staff, miles away. The 22,000 Union troops crushed Pickett’s force of 10,000. Nearly half the Confederate troops were killed, wounded, or captured, further reducing the size of Lee’s army.

With Five Forks in Union hands and his supply line cut, Lee evacuated Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederate general’s only hope was to move his troops west before Grant could capture them.