an extent that many being without rations did not rejoin their commands." He went on to say that: "In the movement to Amelia Court House, and from that point to Sailor's Creek, Farmville and Appomattox Court House, having but scanty supplies and being exhausted by want of sleep and food and overcome with fatigue, many men fell out or wandered in search of food." Upon returning to the scene near the end of the battle with Major General William Mahone's division, and from a bluff across Sailor's Creek seeing the disorganization on the field and survivors streaming along the road, Lee exclaimed "My God, has the army dissolved?" General Mahone replied, "No, General, here are troops ready to do their duty." Lee then said to Mahone, "Yes, there are still some true men left ... Will you please keep those people back?" Mahone's division remained on the opposite bank covering the escape of the fugitives but was not engaged in more combat. Rice's Station (April 6) The Battle of Rice's Station was a minor engagement in that was fought at the same time as the Battle of Sailor's Creek on April 6, 1865. In the early morning of April 6, Lieutenant General James Longstreet's command reached Rice's Station, Virginia (now Rice, Virginia) on the South Side Railroad. As Longstreet's corps was the first to reach Rice's Station after Lee moved his army west from Amelia Springs, Virginia, they awaited the remainder of the army. The XXIV Corps commanded by Major General John Gibbon from Major General Edward O. C. Ord's Army of the James had occupied Burkeville Junction, Virginia, a junction of the South Side Railroad and Richmond and Danville Railroad to the southeast of Rice's Station, on the night of April 5. When Longstreet arrived at Rice's Station, he learned that Ord's troops were at Burkeville Junction and ordered his men to dig in along the tracks and roads into town. During the morning of April 6, after being warned that Lee's Army was on the march, Ord and Gibbon had moved cautiously up the railroad and found Longstreet's force digging in near Rice's Station. Gibbon's skirmishers slowly formed for an attack and had a minor confrontation with the entrenched Confederates. As darkness approached and being unsure of the size of the Confederate force, Ord decided to wait for Sheridan and Meade to come up from behind. The Union