 The High Bridge played a key role during Confederate General Robert E. Lee's final retreat from Petersburg to Appomattox Courthouse, where the surrender to Union General Ulysses S. Grant took place in April, 1865.After the Civil War, under the leadership of former Confederate General William "Billy" Mahone, the Southside Railroad was rebuilt.In 1870, it was combined with the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad and the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad to form Mahone's Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad (AM&O), which extended 400 miles across the southern tier of Virginia from Norfolk on Hampton Roads to Bristol.