When Lee rode into Rice’s Depot with Longstreet he must have been thinking things were finally breaking his way he had beat the Union to the tracks and his men could finally get something to eat. The only problem was the sound of firing off in the distance and the disturbing fact that nobody else seemed to be coming up the road.

As the day wore on Lee left Longstreet in charge at Rice and went back to Saylor’s Creek to see where everybody was. By late afternoon Lee realized that half of his army was destroyed and very few of the wagons that had caused him so much trouble were left.

Earlier in the day the food train left Rice for Farmville crossing the High Bridge before the Union could mount an attack on either Rice or the bridge. The Union sent an ill fated column to the bridge but could not mount any sort of serious attack on Rice before sundown.

Lee sent word to Longstreet that the survivors of Sailor’s Creek were making directly for High Bridge instead of Rice. There was no need for Longstreet to hold Rice any longer: so under cover of darkness he slipped out directly to Farmville.