division and cut off and burned 135 wagons along the road. During this attack, Brigadier General Smyth was mortally wounded by a sniper shot as he rode with his skirmish line within of Gordon's rear guard near Farmville. Colonel Daniel Woodall of the 1st Delaware Infantry Regiment assumed command of the Third Brigade. Smyth's men were stunned by his fall and refused to move for several minutes as Gordon's men began to withdraw. Colonel William A. Olmsted's brigade moved to support Smyth's brigade but about 100 of his men were captured as Confederate rear guards rushed Smyth's hesitating troops. Barlow's men ceased the pursuit altogether as they reached the vicinity of the edge of Farmville north of the river. Union troops take Farmville; Confederates withdraw north While the VI Corps pursued Mahone's division and Gordon's corps north of the Appomattox River, Ord and Gibbons with the XXIV Corps and a brigade of cavalry from Crook's division engaged with Longstreet's rear guard, Scales's brigade and the cavalry, at Briery Creek, just short of Bush River. During this encounter, the other men of Cadmus Wilcox's division received rations at Farmville and moved to the north side of the river. The 1st Maine Cavalry Regiment, armed with 16-shot Henry repeating rifles, led the attack on the Confederate rear guard and the Union forces drove them toward Farmville. Wilcox led his division back across the river to protect the rear guard and the trains with rations just before they moved out toward Pamplin Station. Wilcox then took his men back to the north side of the river cross and Alexander's men started to burn the bridge. Since the Confederates burned the bridge before all their troops were across, Major General Thomas L. Rosser's and Colonel Thomas T. Munford's cavalry divisions and Brigadier General John Bratton's infantry brigade had to cross the river further upstream under fire from Crook's lead units. Crook's cavalry came into town and captured stragglers while the XXIV Corps was only away when the bridge was burned. By the time the main body of Crook's cavalry reached Farmville, most of the Confederates had crossed to the north side of the Appomattox River and burned the bridges leading from the main part of town to the north side of the river. The cavalry ford that Crook's men soon discovered was too deep for the infantry to cross. By 1:30 p.m., Union troops