Third Battle of Petersburg
Battle of the American Civil War / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Third Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg or the Fall of Petersburg, was fought on April 2, 1865, south and southwest Virginia in the area of Petersburg, Virginia, at the end of the 292-day Richmond–Petersburg Campaign (sometimes called the Siege of Petersburg) and in the beginning stage of the Appomattox Campaign near the conclusion of the American Civil War. The Union Army (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Shenandoah and Army of the James) under the overall command of General-in-Chief Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, launched an assault on General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's Petersburg, Virginia trenches and fortifications after the Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. As a result of that battle the Confederate right flank and rear were exposed. The remaining supply lines were cut and the Confederate defenders were reduced by over 10,000 men killed, wounded, taken prisoner or in flight.
Third Battle of Petersburg (Breakthrough at Petersburg) | |||||||
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Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
The battle of Petersburg Va. April 2nd 1865, lithograph by Currier and Ives | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
United States | Confederate States | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Ulysses S. Grant George Meade Horatio Wright Edward Ord Thomas M. Harris |
Robert E. Lee A. P. Hill † | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
114,335[2] ~ 63,000 (engaged)[notes 1] |
40–45,000 18–20,000 (engaged)[notes 2] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
3,936[3][4] | 5,000+[3][4] |
The thinly held Confederate lines at Petersburg had been stretched to the breaking point by earlier Union movements that extended those lines beyond the ability of the Confederates to man them adequately and by desertions and casualties from recent battles. As the much larger Union forces assaulted the lines, desperate Confederate defenders held off the Union breakthrough long enough for Confederate government officials and most of the remaining Confederate army, including local defense forces and some Confederate Navy personnel, to flee Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, during the night of April 2–3. Confederate corps commander Lieutenant General A.P. Hill was killed during the fighting.
Union soldiers occupied Richmond and Petersburg on April 3, 1865, but most of the Union Army pursued the Army of Northern Virginia until they surrounded it, forcing Robert E. Lee to surrender that army on April 9, 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Military situation
Siege of Petersburg
The 292-day Richmond–Petersburg Campaign (Siege of Petersburg) began when two corps of the Union Army of the Potomac, which were unobserved when leaving Cold Harbor at the end of the Overland Campaign, combined with the Union Army of the James outside Petersburg, but failed to seize the city from a small force of Confederate defenders at the Second Battle of Petersburg on June 15–18, 1864.[5] Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant then had to conduct a campaign of trench warfare and attrition in which the Union forces tried to wear down the smaller 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.[6][7] The Confederates were able to defend Richmond and the important railroad and supply center of Petersburg, Virginia, 23 miles (37 km) south of Richmond for over nine months against a larger force by adopting a defensive strategy and skilfully using trenches and field fortifications.[8][9]
After the Battle of Hatcher's Run on February 5–7, 1865, extended the lines another 4 miles (6.4 km), Lee had few reserves after manning the lengthened defenses.[10] Lee knew that his forces could not sustain the defenses much longer and the best chance to continue the war was for part or all of his army to 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.[11][12][13][14] 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.[15][16][17]
Under pressure from President Jefferson Davis to maintain the defenses of Richmond and unable to move effectively over muddy roads with poorly fed animals in winter in any event, General Lee accepted a plan by Major General John B. Gordon to launch an attack on Union Fort Stedman designed to break Union lines east of Petersburg or at least compel Grant to shorten the Union Army lines.[18] If this were to be accomplished, Lee would have a better chance to shorten the Confederate lines and send a substantial force, or nearly his whole army, to help Joe Johnston.[19][20]
Gordon's surprise attack on Fort Stedman in the pre-dawn hours of March 25, 1865, captured the fort, three adjacent batteries and over 500 prisoners while killing and wounding about 500 more Union soldiers. 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 in places to give up their advance picket line. The IX Corps inflicted about 4,000 casualties, including about 1,000 captured, whom the Confederates could ill afford to lose.[18][21]
On the afternoon of March 25, 1865, at the Battle of Jones's Farm, the II Corps and VI Corps captured Confederate picket lines near Armstrong's Mill which extended the left end of the Union line about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) closer to the Confederate fortifications.[22] This put the VI Corps within about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) of the Confederate line.[22][23] After the Confederate defeats at Fort Stedman and Jones's Farm, Lee knew that Grant soon would move against the only remaining Confederate supply lines to Petersburg, the South Side Railroad and the Boydton Plank Road, and possibly cut off all routes of retreat from Richmond and Petersburg.[24][25][26]
Union
Confederate
Grant's orders
On March 24, 1865, the day before the Confederate attack on Fort Stedman, Grant already planned for an offensive to begin March 29, 1865.[27] The objectives were to draw the Confederates out into an open battle where they might be defeated and, if the Confederates held their lines, to cut the remaining road and railroad supply and communication routes between areas of the Confederacy still under Confederate control and Petersburg and Richmond. The Battle of Fort Stedman had no effect on Grant's plans.[28] The Union Army lost no ground due to the attack, did not need to contract their lines and suffered casualties that were only a small percentage of their force.[29][30]
Grant ordered Major General Edward Ord 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 that corps moved to the west. 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 Andrew A. Humphrey's II Corps and the V Corps commanded by Major General Gouverneur K. Warren.[31][32] Grant ordered the two infantry corps, along with Major General Philip Sheridan's cavalry corps, still designated the Army of the Shenandoah under Sheridan's command, to move west. Sheridan's cavalry consisted of two divisions commanded by Brigadier General Thomas Devin and Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer but under the overall command of Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Wesley Merritt, as an unofficial corps commander, and the division of Major General George Crook detached from the Army of the Potomac. Grant's objectives remained the same although he thought it unlikely the Confederates would be drawn into open battle.[31][33]
Lee's orders
Confederate General-in-chief Robert E. Lee, who was already concerned about the ability of his weakening army to maintain the defense of Petersburg and Richmond, realized that the Confederate defeat at Fort Stedman would encourage Grant to make a move against his right flank and communication and transportation routes. On the morning of March 29, 1865, Lee prepared to send some reinforcements to the western end of his line and began to form a mobile force of about 10,600 infantry, cavalry and artillery under the command of Major General George Pickett and cavalry commander Major General Fitzhugh Lee. This force would go beyond the end of the line to protect the key junction at Five Forks in Dinwiddie County from which a Union force could access the remaining open Confederate roads and railroads.[34][35]
Union troop movements
Before dawn on March 29, 1865, 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. Humphrey's II Corps filled the gap between the existing end of the Union line and the new position of Warren's corps. Warren's corps led by Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain's First Brigade of Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Charles Griffin's First Division of the V Corps proceeded north on the Quaker Road toward its intersection with the Boydton Plank Road and the Confederates' nearby White Oak Road Line.[25][36][37]
Battle of Lewis's Farm
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 Fourth Corps commander Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson and his only present division commander, Major General Bushrod Johnson, to turn back the Union advance.[notes 3] 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 (Brevet Brigadier General) Edgar M. Gregory and Colonel (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.[38][39][40][41][42]
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.[43] Late in the afternoon of March 29, 1865, Sheridan's cavalry occupied Dinwiddie Court House on the Boydton Plank Road without opposition.[44] 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 Pickett's mobile force defenders.[39][45][46] The Union Army was nearly in position to attack the two remaining Confederate railroad connections with Petersburg and Richmond, if they could take Five Forks.[44][45][46]
Encouraged by the Confederate failure to press their attack at Lewis's Farm and their withdrawal to their White Oak Road Line, Grant decided to expand Sheridan's mission to a major offensive rather than just a possible battle or a railroad raid and forced extension of the Confederate line.[43][45]
Battle of White Oak Road
On the morning of March 31, General Lee inspected his White Oak Road Line and learned that the Union left flank held by Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division had moved forward the previous day and was "in the air." A wide gap also existed between the Union infantry and Sheridan's nearest cavalry units near Dinwiddie Court House.[47][48] Lee ordered Major General Bushrod Johnson to have his remaining brigades under Brigadier General Henry A. Wise and Colonel Martin L. Stansel in lieu of the ill Young Marshall Moody,[47][49][50] reinforced by the brigades of Brigadier Generals Samuel McGowan and Eppa Hunton, attack the exposed Union line.[47][49]
Stansel's, McGowan's and Hunton's brigades attacked both most of Ayres's division and all of Crawford's division which quickly had joined the fight as it erupted.[51][52] In this initial encounter, two Union divisions of over 5,000 men were thrown back across Gravelly Run by three Confederate brigades.[53] Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Charles Griffin's division and the V Corps artillery under Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Charles S. Wainwright finally stopped the Confederate advance short of crossing Gravelly Run.[51][52][53][54] Adjacent to the V Corps, Major General Andrew A. Humphreys conducted diversionary demonstrations and sent two of Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Nelson Miles's brigades from his II Corps forward. They initially surprised and, after a sharp fight, drove back Wise's brigade on the left of the Confederate line, taking about 100 prisoners.[51][52][55]
At 2:30 p.m., Brigadier General Joshua Chamberlain's men forded the cold, swollen Gravelly Run, followed by the rest of Griffin's division and then the rest of Warren's reorganized corps.[56][57][58] Under heavy fire, Chamberlain's brigade, along with Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Edgar M. Gregory's brigade, charged Hunton's brigade and drove Hunton's troops back to the White Oak Road Line, which allowed Chamberlain's and Gregory's men across White Oak Road.[52][58][59] The remainder of the Confederate force then had to withdraw to avoid being outflanked and overwhelmed.[58] Warren's corps ended the battle again across a section of White Oak Road between the end of the main Confederate line and Pickett's force at Five Forks, cutting the direct route of communications between Anderson's (Johnson's) and Pickett's forces.[52][58][60] Union casualties (killed, wounded, missing – presumably mostly captured) were 1,407 from the V Corps and 461 from the II Corps and Confederate casualties have been estimated at about 800.[notes 4][61]
Battle of Dinwiddie Court House
About 5:00 p.m. on March 29, 1865, Major General Philip Sheridan led two of his three divisions of Union cavalry, totaling about 9,000 men counting the trailing division, unopposed into Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia, about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the end of the Confederate lines and about 6 miles (9.7 km) south of the important road junction at Five Forks.[25][44][62] Sheridan planned to occupy Five Forks the next day. That night, under orders from General Robert E. Lee, Confederate Major General Fitzhugh Lee led his cavalry division from Sutherland's Station to Five Forks to defend against an anticipated Union drive to the South Side Railroad which could sever use of that important final Confederate railroad supply line to Petersburg.[63][64] Fitzhugh Lee arrived at Five Forks with his division early on the morning of March 30 and headed toward Dinwiddie Court House.[65]
On March 30, 1865, in driving rain, Sheridan sent Union cavalry patrols from Brigadier General Thomas Devin's division to seize Five Forks.[66] Devin's force unexpectedly found and skirmished with units of Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry division.[67][68][69] That night Confederate Major General George Pickett reached Five Forks with about 6,000 infantrymen in five brigades (under Brigadier Generals William R. Terry, Montgomery Corse, George H. Steuart, Matt Ransom and William Henry Wallace) and took overall command of the operation as ordered by General Lee.[65][70] The cavalry divisions of Major Generals Thomas L. Rosser and W.H.F. "Rooney" Lee arrived at Five Forks late that night.[65] Fitzhugh Lee took overall command of the cavalry and put Colonel Thomas T. Munford in charge of his own division.[65][71]
The rain continued on March 31.[72] Under Sheridan's direction, Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Wesley Merritt sent two of Devin's brigades toward Five Forks and held one brigade in reserve at J. Boisseau's farm.[73][74][75][76] Sheridan sent brigades or detachments from Major General George Crook's division to guard two fords of a swampy stream just to the west, Chamberlain's Bed, in order to protect the Union left flank from surprise attack and to guard the major roads.[73][77] Dismounted Union troopers of Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Charles H. Smith's brigade armed with Spencer repeating carbines held up Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry attack at the southern ford, Fitzgerald's Ford.[78][79] At about 2:00 p.m., Pickett's force crossed the northern ford, Danse's Ford, against a small force from Brigadier General Henry E. Davies's brigade, which was left to hold the ford while much of the brigade unnecessarily moved to help Smith and could not return fast enough to help the few remaining defenders against Pickett.[80]
Union brigades and regiments fought a series of delaying actions throughout the day but were consistently eventually forced to withdraw toward Dinwiddie Court House.[81][82] The brigades of Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Alfred Gibbs and Brigadier General John Irvin Gregg, later joined by Colonel Smith's brigade, held the junction of Adams Road and Brooks Road for two to three hours.[83][84][85] Meanwhile, Sheridan had called up Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer with two brigades of his division under Colonels Alexander C. M. Pennington, Jr. and Henry Capehart.[83][85][86] Custer set up another defensive line about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) north of Dinwiddie Court House, which his brigades together with Smith's and Gibbs's brigades, used to hold off the attack by Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee until darkness ended the battle.[85][86][87][88] Both armies initially stayed in position and close to each other after dark.[86][89][90] The Confederates intended to resume the attack in the morning.[49][89]
The Confederates did not report their casualties and losses.[89] Historian A. Wilson Greene has written that the best estimate of Confederate casualties in the Dinwiddie Court House engagement is 360 cavalry, 400 infantry, 760 total killed and wounded.[91] Union officers' reports showed that some Confederates also were taken prisoner.[83] Sheridan suffered 40 killed, 254 wounded, 60 missing, total 354.[notes 5] Pickett lost Brigadier General William R. Terry to a disabling injury. Terry was replaced as brigade commander by Colonel Robert M. Mayo.[91][92][93]
Battle of Five Forks
The decisive Battle of Five Forks, was fought on April 1, 1865, southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, around the road junction of Five Forks in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. Five Forks was a critical crossroads that led to the remaining Confederate supply lines. Mobile task forces of combined infantry, artillery and cavalry from the Union Army under overall command of Major General Philip Sheridan with Major General Gouverneur K. Warren commanding the V Corps infantry defeated a Confederate Army of Northern Virginia combined task force commanded by Major General George E. Pickett and cavalry corps commander Fitzhugh Lee. The Union Army inflicted over 1,000 casualties on the Confederates and took at least 2,400 prisoners while seizing Five Forks, the key to control of the vital South Side Railroad. Union casualties were 103 killed, 670 wounded, 57 missing for a total of 830.[94][95][96][97]
Because of the approach of V Corp infantry on the night of March 31, Pickett retreated about 6 miles (9.7 km) to a modestly fortified line about 1.75 miles (2.82 km) in length approximately half on either side of the junction of White Oak Road, Scott Road and Dinwiddie Court House Road (Ford's Road to the north) at Five Forks.[98] Because of its strategic importance, General Robert E. Lee ordered Pickett to hold Five Forks at all hazards.[99][100]
At Five Forks at the beginning of the Union attack about 1:00 p.m. on April 1, Sheridan's cavalry hit the front and right flank of the Confederate line with small arms fire from mostly dismounted cavalry troopers of Brigadier General Thomas Devin's and Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) George Armstrong Custer's divisions.[101] They attacked from mostly positions sheltered by woods just outside the Confederate breastworks. This fire pinned down the Confederates while the massed V Corps of infantry organized to attack the Confederate left flank.[102]
With Sheridan fretting about the amount of remaining daylight and his cavalry possibly running out of ammunition,[103] the Union infantry forces attacked about 4:15 p.m.[104] Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee were having a late shad bake lunch about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the main Confederate line along White Oak Road because they thought Sheridan was unlikely to be organized for an attack that late in the day and that General Lee would send reinforcements if Union Army infantry moved against them. The intervening thick, damp woods and an acoustic shadow prevented the Confederate commanders from hearing the opening stage of the battle nearby. Pickett and Lee had not told any of the next ranking officers of their absence and that those subordinates were temporarily in charge.[94][105] By the time Pickett got to the battlefield, his lines were collapsing beyond his ability to reorganize them.[106][107]
Because of bad information and lack of reconnaissance, two of the Union divisions in the infantry attack did not hit the Confederate left flank, but their movement by chance helped them to roll up the Confederate line by coming at it from the end and rear.[108][109][110] The first division in the attack under Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres alone overran the short right angled line on the left side of the Confederate main line. Sheridan's personal leadership helped encourage the men and focus them on their objective.[111][112] Brigadier General Charles Griffin's division recovered from overshooting the Confederate left and helped roll up additional improvised Confederate defense lines.[113][114] Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Samuel W. Crawford's division swept across north of the main battle but then closed off Ford's Church Road, swept down to Five Forks and helped disperse the last line of Confederate infantry resistance.[115][116] The Union cavalry was somewhat less successful. Although they pushed the Confederate cavalry back, most Confederate cavalrymen escaped while most of the Confederate infantry became casualties or prisoners.[117][118]
Due to more apparent than real lack of speed, enthusiasm and leadership, as well as some past grudges and a personality conflict, after Warren had just personally led a final heroic charge to end the battle, Sheridan unfairly relieved Warren of command of V Corps when the successful battle concluded.[notes 6][119][120][121] The Union Army held Five Forks and the road to the South Side Railroad at the end of the battle.[122]
April 1: Lee's actions at Petersburg
On the morning of April 1, Robert E. Lee sent a letter to Jefferson Davis concerning the extension of the Union lines to Dinwiddie Court House, indicating that this cut off the route to Stony Creek depot where the cavalry's forage was delivered.[123] Lee noted that Sheridan was in a position to sever the South Side Railroad and the Richmond and Danville Railroad and that consideration must be given to "evacuating their position on the James River at once."[124] Lee immediately had seven artillery pieces moved from Richmond to Petersburg.[124] In view of the situation, Lieutenant General A.P. Hill returned to duty from an uncompleted sick leave.[125]
Confederate patrols confirmed that at least the XXIV Corps from the Army of the James was now in the Petersburg lines.[125] On the morning of April 1, Lee also sent a telegram to Lieutenant General James Longstreet in charge of the Richmond lines suggesting that he could go over to the attack or send part of his corps to reinforce the Petersburg lines.[125]
Lee then went to Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson's command post at the end of the White Oak Road line and discovered that the Union force opposite that line had moved west toward Pickett's position.[125] While at Anderson's headquarters, Lee received Longstreet's reply that he thought that troops should be sent to Petersburg because Union gunboats would likely stop any offensive that his force attempted to make.[125]
After the battle on the night of April 1, Fitzhugh Lee informed Robert E. Lee of the defeat and rout at Five Forks from Church's Crossing near the Ford Road junction with the South Side Railroad where the remaining forces of Rooney Lee and Thomas Rosser joined him.[126] Lee sent Anderson with Bushrod Johnson and his infantry to help Pickett reorganize and hold the South Side Railroad.[127][128][129] Anderson left a small force behind to try to hold the line and departed from Burgess Mill to join Fitzhugh Lee at about 6:30 p.m. Anderson arrived about 2:00 a.m. on April 2. General Lee's intention in sending these reinforcements west was to defend the South Side Railroad at Sutherland's Station and to block the railroad as a line of approach to Petersburg.[130] Anderson's force included three brigades of Major General Bushrod Johnson's division, Brigadier General Eppa Hunton's brigade of Pickett's command, and the survivors of Pickett's task force at Five Forks.[128][131] The defenders remaining at the end of the White Oak Road Line between Claiborne Road and Burgess's Mill were the brigades of Brigadier Generals Samuel McGowan's, William MacRae's, Alfred M. Scales's and John R. Cooke's from A.P. Hill's corps.[132]
Lee also ordered troops from Richmond to come to Petersburg to help defend against attacks which he thought to be imminent.[129] Lee ordered Longstreet to move with Major General Charles W. Field's division to the Petersburg defenses.[133] He also ordered Major General William Mahone to send Brigadier General Nathaniel Harris's brigade to Petersburg from the Bermuda Hundred line.[notes 7][133]
Porter reports victory; Grant orders general assault
When the Battle of Five Forks ended, Colonel Horace Porter, General Grant's aide and observer at the battle, started back for Grant's headquarters at about 7:30 p.m.[127][128][134] He excitedly reported the victory and told Grant that over 5,000 prisoners were taken.[134] The victory at Five Forks opened the road to the South Side Railroad for the Union force. As soon as Grant learned of the victory, at about 8:00 p.m., he ordered Major General Meade to have Major Generals Humphreys and Parke ready to push against the Confederate lines to keep the Confederates from escaping from Petersburg and converging on Sheridan's force.[122][135] Grant told the officers at his headquarters that he had ordered a general assault along the lines.[136]
Meade asked Grant for clarification because Grant previously had ordered a 4:00 a.m. attack all along the line.[122][135] Grant said both Humphreys and Parke should feel for a chance to push on that night, that Humphreys should send skirmishers forward and attack if the Confederates were leaving their positions.[126][135][137] If the Confederates held their line, Grant said that Humphreys should send Miles's division down White Oak Road to reinforce Sheridan.[126][137] Miles's and Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Gershom Mott's divisions from Humphreys corps attacked at once but could not do more than drive in the Confederate pickets as Confederate artillery opened up on them.[137] Miles division was sent to Sheridan just before midnight but Mott's and Brigadier General William Hays's divisions continued probing the Confederate line.[137]
Grant also directed that Major Generals Horatio Wright, John Parke and Edward Ord (John Gibbon) begin an artillery barrage on the Confederate lines.[126] The division commanders and Ord reported to Grant that their men could not see the defenses well enough to attack that night.[126]
Grant sends Miles's division to Sheridan; Sheridan's plan
On the night of April 1, two divisions of the Union V Corps camped across White Oak Road near Gravelly Run Church while the third division camped near Ford's Road.[138] Sheridan's cavalry divisions camped at the Gilliam Farm near Five Forks while Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie's cavalrymen, detached from the Army of the James for service with Sheridan, settled in near the Ford's Road crossing of Hatcher's Run.[138] Nelson A. Miles's division of Andrew Humphrey's II Corps joined Sheridan later that night.[138]
Grant sent a message to Sheridan late on April 1 that he was sending Miles's division to him and that he planned an attack along the Petersburg lines at 4:00 a.m.[138] Grant said he could give Sheridan no specific instructions but "would like you however to get something done to the South Side Road even if they do not tear up a mile of it."[138] Sheridan replied at 12:30 a.m. that he planned to sweep the White Oak Road and all north of it down to Petersburg.[135][138] He sent no troops to the South Side Railroad but moved against the White Oak Road Line flank.[139]
Artillery barrage
As ordered by General Grant, at 10:00 p.m., Union artillery opened fire with 150 guns on the Confederate lines opposite the Union Army's Petersburg lines until 2:00 a.m.[notes 8][126][140] The Confederates did not leave the lines that night and the Union assault began at about 4:30 a.m.[126]
Plan of attack
Major Generals Andrew Humphreys with the II Corps, Horatio Wright with the VI Corps, John Parke with the IX Corps and Edward Ord, commander of the Army of the James, with Major General John Gibbon's XXIV Corps had been planning the attack scheduled for 4:00 a.m. on April 2, 1865 for three days.[141] Grant directed them to carry the trenches and fortifications opposite their corps and move toward Petersburg. General Sheridan was instructed to start at dawn and move up the White Oak Road and all north of it to Petersburg as he had informed Grant that he would.[135][138][141]
Opposite Ord and Wright were the Confederate brigades of Brigadier Generals Joseph R. Davis, under the command of Colonel Andrew M. Nelson, William McComb, James H. Lane and Edward L. Thomas of Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox's division of A.P. Hill's corps.[141] Opposite Parke was Major General John B. Gordon's corps of about 7,600 men.[141]