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Chapter Fifteen: “The Beautiful Captain”—Five Forks, March–April 1865
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254 Chapter F ifteen “The Beautiful Captain” Five Forks, March—April 1865 The Army of the Potomac It is natural to suppose that Lee would understand my design to be to get up to the South Side [Railroad] and ultimately to the Danville Railroad, as soon as he had heard of the movement commenced on the 29th [of March]. These roads were so important to his very existence while he remained in Richmond and Petersburg, and of such vital importance to him even in case of retreat, that naturally he would make most strenuous efforts to defend them. He did on the 30th send Pickett with five brigades to reinforce Five Forks. —Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs As March drew to a close and weather appeared conducive to a major offensive using the combined forces of Sheridan’s Army of the Shenandoah and Meade’s Army of the Potomac, Grant was guided by three interrelated objectives : (1) to force Lee to stretch his siege line even further by threatening the Confederate right flank; (2) to seize the South Side Railroad, cutting off Rebel supplies to Petersburg and Richmond; and (3) to crush the Army of Northern Virginia with the Union’s overwhelming number of troops. These objectives were not mutually exclusive endeavors; they were compatible approaches combined to deliver a knockout blow to Lee’s army and the Confederacy. On March 29,Warren’s Fifth Corps—17,000 men strong—set out in a light rain to march up Quaker Road toward Boydton Plank Road. Warren’s mis- Five Forks, March—April 1865 255 sion was to provide infantry support to Sheridan who was on the road to Dinwiddie Court House with 9,000 troopers as part of a coordinated effort to take the South Side Railroad. Serving as the vanguard of the Fifth Corps, the First Brigade of the First Division, commanded by Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain, ran into resistance from Confederate units located just off Boydton Plank Road near a farm owned by the Lewis family. Reinforced by the Second Brigade of the division, Chamberlain moved his unit forward and began driving the Confederates back toward their entrenchments aligned to the north along White Oak Road. The Confederate general who watched the Union drive his men back, Lieutenant General Richard Anderson, responded by quickly dispatching a brigade of South Carolinians under Brigadier General William H. Wallace. Wallace’s reinforcements helped stop Chamberlain’s advance after thirty minutes of intense fighting. The action see-sawed back and forth as Union artillery came on the scene provoking a third Confederate brigade to join the fray. Concerned about the probability of his advance collapsing beneath the hammering by three Rebel units, Griffin sent in four fresh regiments, including the 155th Pennsylvania, that had been held in reserve. The newly introduced regiments swarmed past the Lewis farmhouse and used sawdust piles at an abandoned sawmill near the farm as makeshift breastworks. The pressure on the Confederates was overwhelming, and the Rebels began to fall back. When the action was over, the Confederates had lost 371 men to the Union’s 381.Yet, despite the ostensible equity in casualties, the Union had scored a major gain: it now had a foothold on Boydton Plank Road, an important supply route for Lee’s army. Grant was pleased with the turn of events and saw an opportunity to send his most aggressive general officer, Phil Sheridan, around the right of the Rebels in order to get behind them. This meant giving up the effort to take the South Side Railroad—at least for the time being. Grant was responding to a dynamic battlefield situation, and he knew that Sheridan and his cavalry troopers had the mobility to quickly take advantage of the situation while the plodding Fifth Corps would—in Grant’s mind—not be able to move quickly, particularly under the direction of General Gouverneur Warren whose reputation had plummeted with Grant. On the morning of March 31, General Ayres—with the approval of corps commander General Warren—began an assault on the Confederate lines along White Oak Road. Meanwhile, the Confederates, under direction from Lee, began their own assault on the Union lines facing White Oak Road. The two opposing armies were like billy goats battering each other, but the Confederates had the advantages of an earlier start and forward momentum. They could not be stopped. The Rebels pushed both Ayres’s and Crawford’s [54.157.61.194] Project MUSE...