northern (and western) side of the bridge and were just starting to burn the railroad bridge and lower wagon and foot bridge. A mistaken or misunderstood order to Lieutenant General Anderson's guards not to allow anyone to pass kept Major General William Mahone's division from crossing until the order were clarified. Then more time was spent getting the required order to destroy the bridges to the Confederate engineers commanded by Colonel Thomas M. R. Talcott. This permitted the lead units of the II Corps to reach the bridge just as the Confederates were attempting to destroy it. The ensuing fight to save or destroy the bridges was the second Battle of High Bridge, following the battle the previous day when a Union raiding force tried to destroy the bridge to keep the Confederates on the south side of the Appomattox River and the Confederates successfully fought to save it, killing or capturing the Union force. On the morning of April 7, the Union troops led by the 19th Maine Volunteer Infantry Regiment under Colonel Isaac R. Starbird were able to prevent the total destruction of the railroad bridge, though it had been made unusable. They were able to preserve the wagon bridge for passage of the II Corps in their pursuit of Gordon, Anderson and Mahone. Colonel William A. Olmsted's First Brigade of Barlow's division and Brigadier General Thomas Alfred Smyth's Third Brigade, joined by Brigadier General Nelson Miles's division drove off a counterattack by Mahone's troops who were trying to complete the bridges' destruction. Mahone's division was in a defensive line with two redoubts on high ground on the north bank of the river when the II Corps began to arrive at the bridges but they moved to northwest when they could not destroy the bridges and prevent Humphreys's corps from crossing the river. Gordon's corps moved up river along the railroad bed toward Farmville. Humphreys, with Miles's and Brigadier General Regis de Trobriand's divisions, followed Mahone while Barlow's division followed Gordon. Pursuit; Smyth mortally wounded Gordon's corps and Barlow's division skirmished from High Bridge to the northern outskirts of Farmville. An advance Union party of 103 men from the 7th Michigan Infantry Regiment and the 59th New York Infantry Regiment were taken prisoner by the 9th (1st) North Carolina Battalion of Sharp Shooters of Brigadier General John A. Walker's division. Barlow's division caught up with part of Gordon's