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Battle of the American Civil War
On March 29, 1865, the Union V Corps under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren moved to the end of the Confederates' White Oak Road Line, the far right flank of the Confederate defenses. At the conclusion of the Battle of Lewis's Farm on that day, Warren's corps took control of advance Confederate picket or outpost positions and occupied a segment of a key transportation and communication route, the Boydton Plank Road, at the junction of the Quaker Road. Warren's corps was the closest Union infantry unit to Major General Philip Sheridan's force which had moved about 4 mile (6 km) to Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia west of the end of the Confederate lines and just south of Five Forks, Virginia. Five Forks was an important road junction for control of the critical Confederate supply line of the South Side Railroad (sometimes shown as Southside Railroad). Colonel Frederick Winthrop's brigade of Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division of the V Corps took a further advance position across Gravelly Run near the Confederate White Oak Road Line in torrential rain on March 30, 1865. Ayres was unaware of how close his men were settling in near the Confederate White Oak Road Line and that contrary to his observation and belief, the Confederate line extended beyond the end of his new position. This, and the separation between Ayres's corps and Sheridan's cavalry, were important factors when Ayres's troops were surprised by a Confederate attack the next day. Warren's corps, led by Brevet Major General Charles Griffin's First Division, counterattacked, pushed the Confederates back to their original lines, secured advanced positions and cut the Confederates access to direct communication with Pickett over White Oak Road and the Boydton Plank Road. After securing his position, Warren also was able to send units to outflank and drive off Pickett's forces which were in a position to inflict a serious defeat on Sheridan's troopers whom Pickett's force had pushed back that day at Dinwiddie Court House. The battles at White Oak Road and Dinwiddie Court House, while initially successful for the Confederates, even a tactical victory at Dinwiddie, ultimately did not advance their lines or achieve their strategic objective of weakening and driving back the Union forces or separating Sheridan's force from support. The battles and their aftermath set the stage for the Confederate defeats and the collapse of Confederate lines at the Battle of Five Forks on the following day, April 1, 1865, and the Third Battle of Petersburg (also known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg) on April 2, 1865 and ultimately led to the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

When two unobserved corps of the Union Army of the Potomac, which combined with the Union Army of the James outside Petersburg, failed to seize the city from a small force of Confederate defenders at the Second Battle of Petersburg, the 292 day Richmond–Petersburg Campaign (Siege of Petersburg) began. Union General in Chief Ulysses S. Grant had to conduct a campaign of trench warfare and attrition in which the Union forces tried to wear down the less numerous Confederate Army, destroy or cut off sources of supply and supply lines to Petersburg and Richmond and extend the defensive lines which the outnumbered and declining Confederate force had to defend to the breaking point. After the Battle of Hatcher's Run on February 5–7, 1865 extended the lines another 4 mile (6 km), Lee had few reserves after manning the lengthened defenses. Lee then knew that part or all of his army must leave the Richmond and Petersburg lines, obtain food and supplies at Danville, Virginia or possibly Lynchburg, Virginia and join General Joseph E. Johnston's force opposing Major General William T. Sherman's army in North Carolina. If the Confederates could quickly defeat Sherman, they might turn back to oppose Grant before he could combine his forces with Sherman's. Lee began preparations for the movement and informed Confederate President Jefferson Davis and Confederate States Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge of his conclusions and plan.

Aware that Sherman's army moving through North Carolina might combine with Grant's army at Petersburg if General Joseph E. Johnston's army could not stop Sherman, and that Lee's own declining army could not hold the Richmond and Petersburg defenses much longer, in March 1865, General Lee accepted a plan by Major General John Brown Gordon to launch an attack on Union Fort Stedman. The objective would be to break the Union lines east of Petersburg, or at least to compel the Union forces to shorten their lines by gaining ground in a substantial attack. After Gordon's surprise attack on Fort Stedman in the pre dawn hours of March 25, 1865 resulted in the capture of the fort, three adjacent batteries and over 500 men while killing and wounding about 500 more, the Union IX Corps under Major General John G. Parke promptly counterattacked. The IX Corps recaptured the fort and batteries, forced the Confederates to return to their lines and give up their advance picket line and inflicted about 4,000 casualties, including about 1,000 captured, which the Confederates could ill afford. On the afternoon of March 25, at the Battle of Jones's Farm, Union forces of II Corps and VI Corps captured Confederate picket lines near Armstrong's Mill and extended the left end of the Union line about 0.25 mile (0 km) closer to the Confederate fortifications. This put the VI Corps which was holding this section of the line, within easy striking distance, about 0.5 mile (1 km), of the Confederate line. After the Confederate defeats at Fort Stedman and Jones's Farm, Lee knew that Grant would soon move against the only remaining Confederate supply lines to Petersburg, the Southside Railroad and the Boydton Plank Road and possibly cut off all routes of retreat from Richmond and Petersburg.

On March 24, 1865, the day before the Confederate attack on Fort Stedman, Grant already had planned an offensive for March 29, 1865. The objectives were to draw the Confederates out into a battle in which they might be defeated, or cut the remaining road and railroad supply and communication routes between areas of the Confederacy still under Confederate control and Petersburg and Richmond if the Confederates held their lines. The Battle of Fort Stedman had no effect on Grant's plans. The Union Army lost no ground due to the attack and their casualties were a small percentage of their force. Grant ordered Major General Edward Ord's to move part of the Army of the James from the lines near Richmond to fill in the line to be vacated by the II Corps under Major General Andrew A. Humphreys at the southwest end of the Petersburg line before the II Corps moved to the west. Ord moved two divisions of Major General John Gibbon's XXIV Corps under Brigadier Generals Charles Devens and William Birney and one division of XXV Corps under Brigadier General John W. Turner to the south side of the Appomattox River. This freed two corps of Major General George Meade's Army of the Potomac for offensive action against Lee's flank and railroad supply lines: Major General Humphrey's II Corps and the V Corps under the command of Major General Gouverneur K. Warren. Grant ordered these forces, along with Major General Philip Sheridan's cavalry, still designated the Army of the Shenandoah, consisting of the First Division of Brigadier General Thomas Devin and the Third Division of Brigadier General and Brevet Major General George Armstrong Custer but both under the overall command of Brigadier General and Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt as an unofficial corps commander and the Second Division of Major General George Crook detached from the Army of the Potomac for this mission, to move west. The objectives were to bring on an open field battle to defeat the Confederates in combat or to cut the Southside Railroad and the Boydton Plank Road, which connected with the previously severed Weldon Railroad to Petersburg, and the Richmond and Danville Railroad to Richmond, and to stretch Lee's line to the breaking point.

Before dawn on March 29, Warren's V Corps moved west of the Union and Confederate lines while Sheridan's cavalry took a longer, more southerly route toward Dinwiddie Court House and Humphrey's II Corps filled in the gap between the existing end of the Union line and the new position of Warren's corps. Warren's corps led by the First Brigade of Griffin's First Division under the command of Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain proceeded up the Quaker Road toward its intersection with the Boydton Plank Road and the Confederates' nearby White Oak Road Line.

Along Quaker Road, across Rowanty Creek at the Lewis Farm, Chamberlain's men encountered brigades of Confederate Brigadier Generals Henry A. Wise, William Henry Wallace and Young Marshall Moody which had been sent by corps commander Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson and his division commander Major General Bushrod Johnson to turn back the Union advance. A back and forth battle ensued during which Chamberlain was wounded and almost captured. Chamberlain's brigade, reinforced by a four gun artillery battery and regiments from the brigades of Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Edgar M. Gregory and Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Alfred L. Pearson, who was later awarded the Medal of Honor, drove the Confederates back to their White Oak Road Line. Casualties for both sides were nearly even at 381 for the Union and 371 for the Confederates. After the battle, Griffin's division moved up to occupy the junction of the Quaker Road and Boydton Plank Road near the end of the Confederate White Oak Road Line. Late in the afternoon of March 29, 1865, Sheridan's cavalry occupied Dinwiddie Court House on the Boydton Plank Road without opposition. The Union forces had cut the Boydton Plank Road in two places and were close to the Confederate line and in a strong position to move a large force against both the Confederate right flank and the crucial road junction at Five Forks in Dinwiddie County to which Lee was just sending defenders. The Union forces were also nearly in position to attack the two remaining Confederate railroad connections with Petersburg and Richmond, if they could take Five Forks. Brigadier General William MacRae's brigade also was moved to the west of Burgess Mill. Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox's three other brigades had to spread out to cover the vacated defenses. On March 30, a day of steady torrential rain, the Union forces consolidated their positions while Lee completed his orders for Major General George Pickett together with cavalry help from Major General Fitzhugh Lee to form a mobile task force to move 4 mile (6 km) from the end of the Confederate line near Hatcher's Run to Five Forks. With the gap between the end of the Confederate White Oak Road Line southwest of Petersburg and Pickett's force at Five Forks in mind, on March 30, Lee made additional deployments to strengthen his right flank. Lee would have moved men from Lieutenant General James Longstreet's force north of the James River but largely due to demonstrations and deceptions by the remaining divisions of Major General Godfrey Weitzel's XXV Corps, Longstreet thought that he still confronted Ord's entire Army of the James almost three days after Ord had gone with two divisions of the XXIV Corps, a division of the XXV Corps and Mackenzie's cavalry to the Union lines south of Petersburg. Lee moved Brigadier General Alfred M. Scales's brigade, temporarily commanded by Colonel Joseph H. Hyman, from Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox's division's left to trenches near the junction of the White Oak Road and the Boydton Plank Road. MacRae's brigade moved to the southwest side of Hatcher's Run, having already just moved to Burgess Mill. Brigadier General Eppa Hunton's brigade of Pickett's division joined Anderson and Bushrod Johnson along the White Oak Road Line near the junction with the Claiborne Road. Major General Bryan Grimes's division reinforced Brigadier General Edward L. Thomas's brigade which had to fill in part of the line formerly occupied by Scales's brigade.

The incessant rain severely hampered operations and the Union army's mobile force's ability to keep supplies moving to their new positions. A large number of Warren's V Corps soldiers had to help the teamsters move wagons and horses through the mud and even to corduroy roads. Gravelly Run was swollen to three times its usual size and bridges and pontoons on Hatcher's Run were swept away. In the afternoon, Warren saw Griffin's men take over Confederate outposts but he also saw that any attempted movement further up the Boydton Plank Road was covered by Confederate artillery and fortifications. Meanwhile, Humphrey's II Corps closed the gap between the V Corps and the XXIV Corps. The XXIV Corps captured a large part of the Confederate picket line in their front. Humphrey's corps also moved as close to the Confederate line as possible without starting a general engagement and entrenched at the forward positions. Union casualties for the March 30 actions at the White Oak Road Line were 1 killed, 7 wounded and 15 missing; the number of Confederate casualties is unknown. During the night of March 30, Grant advised Meade not to have the VI Corps and IX Corps make a general attack along the line on March 31 as earlier planned, but to stand ready to take advantage of any sign that the Confederates had weakened their line. Grant also noted that he wanted to shift forces to the west so that Warren would have his whole force available to reinforce Ayres.

Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division of the V Corps also made a reconnaissance toward White Oak Road a short distance west of Claiborne Road. The lead brigade under Colonel Frederick Winthrop crossed a swollen branch of Gravelly Run which was to feature in the following day's battle. As dark approached, Ayres had a number of outposts prepared to cover his position, which turned out to be about 0.75 mile (1 km) beyond the point where the Confederate line veered sharply back to the north. Ayres ordered the two brigades which had not crossed Gravelly Run to come across and join Winthrop's men at the S. Dabney house at dawn.

On the morning of March 31, General Lee inspected his White Oak Road Line and learned that the Union left flank held by Ayres's division was "in the air" and that there was a wide gap between the Union infantry and Sheridan's nearest cavalry units near Dinwiddie Court House. He ordered Brigadier Generals McGowan and Hunton to bring their brigades to the far right of Anderson's position which would bring Bushrod Johnson's division back to its strength before the transfer of Ransom's and Wallace's brigades to Pickett. Lee ordered Johnson to attack the exposed Union line. Along with McGowan's and Hunton's brigades, Johnson had his own brigades under the command of Brigadier General Henry A. Wise and Colonel Martin L. Stansel in lieu of Brigadier General Young Marshall Moody who was ill. The four Confederate brigades from three divisions, which were in turn from three different corps, worked well together in the actions on March 31.

Before Johnson's brigades could start their attack on the advance Union position, at Ayres's request, Warren moved a brigade from Brigadier General and Brevet Major General Samuel W. Crawford's division toward White Oak Road in order to secure Ayres's position and to disperse the Confederate pickets. At 8:15 a. m., Warren advised Ayres that Sheridan had implied in correspondence to him that Merritt's force had been dislodged from White Oak Road and that Ayres should be looking for an attack from the west or the north. Due to the condition of the roads and Gravelly Run, Crawford's men did not get into formation until 10:00 a. m.

Meanwhile, having seen the movement of Ayres's and Crawford's brigades toward the Confederate line, Johnson allowed Hunton's and Stansel's brigades to advance to meet the Union formations even though McGowan's brigade on the far right was not ready. The Confederates were able to approach the Union force while screened by woods north of White Oak Road. Wise's brigade moved out of the works but did not join the fight because they were apparently waiting for orders. As the fight developed, Wise's brigade did not engage the V Corps. Although outnumbered and occasionally checked by the stand of some Union brigades, the three Confederate brigades in action first drove the four Union brigades, three from Ayres's division and one from Crawford's, back across Gravelly Run. Then Stansel's brigade drove back Union Brigadier General Henry Baxter's brigade and a reformed part of Colonel James Gwyn's brigade still forward of Gravelly Run. The forward Union regiments of Baxter's brigade fell back to find the remainder of the brigade had retreated. Warren's heroic effort was to no avail and he retreated across the creek, stopped the panic and had the scattered regiments reform behind Griffin's division. Four Confederate brigades, only three of which saw any real action against V Corps divisions, had thrown back two Union divisions of over 5,000 men. The Confederates fell back about 400 yards from the run when they met the fire from Griffin and Wainwright, although historian Ed Bearss states that the Confederates only meant to make a forced reconnaissance at the run, not to cross it.

Humphrey had relieved Griffin's division in the rifle pits early in the morning. Although it took Griffin some time to move to concentrate with Warren's other divisions, they arrived in time to stabilize the situation after Ayres's and Crawford's divisions had been driven back. Warren sent word to Humphrey's for help when he learned of the situation of Ayres's and Crawford's divisions in retreat. Hunton's brigade had shifted to the left to help Wise's brigade and Stansel's brigade had to shift to the right and left. Then Johnson ordered his men to hold their positions since he doubted they could cross Gravelly Run, and after examining the area, General Lee approved Johnson's decision.

Because no reinforcements were available, Johnson pulled his tired men back to the line of fortifications south of White Oak Road that Ayres's men had set up the night before.

Griffin's V Corps brigades and Wainwright's artillery stabilized the Union line by 1:00 p. m., about two and one half hours after the battle started. Warren and Griffin then approached Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain, wounded only two days earlier at the Battle of Lewis's Farm, with the question: "General Chamberlain, will you save the honor of the Fifth Corps?" Despite the pain from his wounds suffered at Lewis's Farm, Chamberlain agreed to the assignment. From Johnson's new position in rifle pits south of White Oak Road, which had been constructed by Ayres's men, the Confederates hit Chamberlain's men with a heavy fire as they emerged from the nearby woods. Warren ordered Chamberlain to hold his position but Chamberlain suggested to Griffin that they would be better off attacking the Confederates than remaining under fire and being picked off. The remainder of the Confederate force then had to withdraw to prevent being outflanked and overwhelmed. Warren's corps ended the battle having gained possession of a part of White Oak Road to the west of the Confederate right flank, which was between the end of the Confederate line and Pickett's force at Five Forks. Ayres's division, which had not engaged in the combat as Chamberlain and Gregory pushed the Confederates back, stopped just short of White Oak Road, facing west toward Five Forks. This cut the direct communication route between Anderson's (Johnson's) and Pickett's forces and nearly completely cut communication between them. Webb stated that it was believed that Sheridan was advancing but in fact they were being pushed back by Pickett's force at the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House.

As a result of the battle, the Confederates had lost control of the White Oak Road, were trapped in their works and had lost the direct line of communication to Pickett's force. The Confederates won the day on March 31 at Dinwiddie Court House by pushing the Union cavalry into a tight position. About 6:00 p. m., Meade learned that Pickett in fact was pushing Sheridan back to Dinwiddie Court House. Meade ordered Warren to send a force to Sheridan down the Boydton Plank Road. Warren sent three regiments of Bartlett's brigade which had been guarding wagons to Sheridan down the Boydton Plank Road. Pickett realized his position was untenable after he learned between 9:00 p. m. and 10:00 p. m. that Bartlett's brigade was on its way to reinforce Sheridan, exposing his force to flanking Union infantry attack. So Pickett withdrew to Five Forks later that night, ceding any advantage his attack on Sheridan might have gained. Pickett's retreat at least gave him an opportunity to defend Five Forks and the Southside Railroad. Additional orders and messages passed among Warren, Grant, Meade and Sheridan that night although the full information was shared by none. At 8:45 p. m., Grant directed Meade to send a division from the V Corps to Sheridan's aid. Orders were changed, including whether Bartlett should be recalled to join with the rest of Griffin's division. Warren's corps was without pontoons because they had been used at Rowanty Creek and the Quaker Road crossing of Gravelly Run so that when his entire corps had to move west it was delayed by the need to bridge the Boydton Plank Road crossing of Gravelly Run, which Warren was advised was completed at 2:05 a. m. Meade did not tell Grant that the plan to move Warren's entire corps to Sheridan's aid and to cover the Boydton Plank Road line with only the II Corps was Warren's idea. When Grant notified Sheridan that the V Corps and Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry had been ordered to his support, he gratuitously and without any basis said that Warren should reach him "by 12 tonight," an impossibility under the circumstances. Ayres's division arrived at Sheridan's position at dawn. The Confederates had retreated so Ayres's men rested until 2:00 p. m.

Sheridan had received wrong information so he thought the V Corps was in the rear and almost on the flank of the Confederates and therefore he mistakenly thought V Corps could launch an early, severe attack on Pickett's force. At 6:00 a. m., Meade's Chief of Staff Alexander S. Webb sent an order to Warren to report to Sheridan for orders. Two divisions had done so within the hour, and before Warren had received the order, but Warren did not personally meet with Sheridan until 11:00 a. m.

When the Confederates reached Five Forks, they began to improve the trenches and fortifications, including establishing a return or refusal of the line running north of the left or eastern side of their trenches. A walking trail of two thirds of a mile includes the remains of Confederate earthworks and two well preserved gun emplacements as well as signs detailing the 1865 battle. It begins next to the intersection of White Oak and Clairborne Roads (Va. Routes 613 and 631).