By this time, most of the Federal and Confederate manpower involved in the siege of Petersburg and Richmond was concentrated southwest of Petersburg, on the extreme right flank of General-in-Chief Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. Lee arrived in this sector on the morning of March 30 to inspect positions and confer with his commanders at Sutherland Station.
Lee ultimately ordered Major-General George Pickett to lead his infantry division (along with two brigades under Major-General Bushrod R. Johnson) to move west, beyond the right flank, and join with Major-General Fitzhugh Lee’s three cavalry divisions at Five Forks. This was a key intersection that Lee needed to hold to preserve his supply line via the South Side Railroad. From Five Forks, Pickett and Fitz were to drive Major-General Philip Sheridan’s Federal cavalry away from Dinwiddie Court House, five miles south.
To the east, Lieutenant-General Richard H. Anderson’s small corps made up the right flank of the Confederate army. Anderson’s men held the White Oak Road, including Burgess’s Mill, but with the transfer of Johnson’s two brigades to Pickett, this left a four-mile gap between Anderson’s men and those under Pickett and Fitz. R.E. Lee sought to plug this gap before the Federals could exploit it.
Sheridan’s troopers at Dinwiddie were supported by the Second and Fifth corps from the Army of the Potomac under Major-Generals Andrew A. Humphreys and Gouverneur Warren respectively. Warren’s corps was the closest to Sheridan, with Humphreys’ corps farther east. Pickett and Fitz Lee hoped to not only drive Sheridan away from Dinwiddie, but to isolate him from Warren and Humphreys as well.
The pouring rain continued throughout the 30th and slowed movements to a crawl. Sheridan sent one of his divisions under Brigadier-General Wesley Merritt to probe the Confederate defenses, and skirmishing ensued until Merritt finally withdrew. Warren’s men also conducted probing actions which delayed Pickett from joining Fitz Lee at Five Forks until around 4:30 p.m.
Pickett planned to continue the march toward Dinwiddie Court House, but his troops were tired, the hour was late, and two of Fitz’s three divisions had not yet arrived. Pickett instead deployed his Confederates along the White Oak Road and planned to attack next morning.
Meanwhile, Sheridan planned to advance on Five Forks the next day, despite the continuing heavy rain. He directed Brigadier-General George A. Custer’s division to corduroy the roads so the advance could proceed. However, Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant finally gave in to pleas from his staff officers to postpone the action until the rain stopped.
Grant notified Sheridan, “The heavy rain of to-day will make it impossible for us to do much until it dries up a little or we get roads around our rear repaired…” Therefore, he was to hold his position with a token force and withdraw the rest until the weather improved. Sheridan, believing “that a suspension of operations would be a serious mistake,” rode as fast as he could to Grant’s headquarters on the Vaughan Road near Gravelly Run. Sheridan later recalled that upon his arrival:
“General Grant began talking of our fearful plight, resulting from the rains and mud, and saying that because of this it seemed necessary to suspend operations. I at once begged him not to do so, telling him that my cavalry was already on the move in spite of the difficulties, and that although a suspension of operations would not be fatal, yet it would give rise to the very charge of disaster to which he had referred at City Point, and, moreover, that we would surely be ridiculed, just as General Burnside’s army was after the mud march of 1863.”
Sheridan insisted that he could destroy Lee’s right flank if he had infantry support. When a staff officer asked Sheridan how he expected to find forage for 13,000 men and horses, Sheridan snapped: “Forage? I’ll get all the forage I want. I’ll haul it out if I have to set every man in the command to corduroying roads, and corduroy every mile of them from the railroad to Dinwiddie. I tell you I’m ready to strike out tomorrow and go to smashing things.”
Around this time, Grant received a message from Major-Generals John G. Parke and Horatio G. Wright, commanding the Ninth and Sixth corps east of Petersburg respectively. They reported that the enemy trenches in front of them appeared vulnerable to an assault. This knowledge, coupled with Sheridan’s pleas, prompted Grant to write new orders for Sheridan:
“If your situation is such as to justify the belief that you can turn the enemy’s right with the assistance of a corps of infantry entirely detached from the balance of the army, I will so detach the Fifth corps and place the whole under your command for the operation. Let me know, as early in the morning as you can, your judgment in the matter, and I will make the necessary orders. Orders have been given Ord, Wright and Parke to be ready to assault at daylight tomorrow morning. They will not make the assault, however, without further directions… If the assault is not ordered in the morning, then it can be directed at such time as to come in co-operation with you on the left.”
As the day ended, Parke and Wright were poised to advance upon the enemy defenses as soon as word arrived that Sheridan had succeeded.
Bibliography
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