Virginia, Dinwiddie County,
March 31, 1865
By David W. Lowe
Through a steady, chilling rain on March 30, US Major General Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps pressed north on the Quaker Road to its intersection with Boydton Plank Road. Across an open field loomed the main Confederate defense line, a formidable entrenchment paralleling White Oak Road, manned by CS Lieutenant General Richard H. Anderson’s small corps. The II Corps, under US Major General Andrew A. Humphreys, worked through the woods on Warren’s right, pressing Confederate skirmishers back to Hatcher’s Run.
From his headquarters at Mrs. Butler’s house, Warren dispatched US Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres to locate the Confederate right flank. Following a muddy farm road across a swampy branch of Gravelly Run and through the woods, Ayres came into an open field from which he could see White Oak Road and a column of infantry—CS Major General George E. Pickett’s soldiers—trudging along it toward Five Forks just four miles away.
After Ayres’s reconnaissance Warren reported to headquarters that he could throw his corps across White Oak Road to prevent reinforcements from reaching Five Forks. US Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and US Major General George G. Meade approved Warren’s plan and ordered the II Corps to cooperate. Before daylight on March 31 US Brigadier General Nelson A. Miles’s division of the II Corps extended its left to cover the Quaker–Boydton Plank fork at the Stroud farm, freeing US Brigadier General Charles Griffin’s V Corps division to join Warren’s attack. While preparations were under way, an order from Meade arrived suspending operations for the day because of nearly impassable roads.
CS General Robert E. Lee had no intention of suspending operations. Confident that Pickett’s force could handle US Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry at Dinwiddie Court House, he rode out that morning to direct personally a thrust against Warren’s flank. After thinning out his entrenchments, he had three brigades at hand—CS Brigadier Generals Samuel McGowan’s, Archibald Gracie’s (commanded by CS Colonel Martin L. Stansel), and Eppa Hunton’s, numbering about 3,800 men. An attack with so few was a desperate gamble, but Lee’s veterans had triumphed before against similar odds. Lee’s strike force formed in the woods north of White Oak Road, fronting the W. Dabney and B. Butler fields.
When the rainfall slackened at about midmorning, Meade sent word for Warren to push his earlier proposal to occupy White Oak Road. Warren dispatched Ayres and his 4,000-man division back up the barely passable farm road to deploy in the open ground south of B. Butler’s fields. US Brigadier General Samuel W. Crawford’s division followed and massed near the Holliday house about five hundred yards in the rear of Ayres. Griffin’s division remained east of the swampy ravine, with the artillery near Warren’s headquarters at Mrs. Butler’s house. At about 11:00 a.m., just as Ayres started his battle line forward, a long line of Confederate infantrymen stepped out of the woods, leveled their rifle muskets, and delivered a volley that staggered the Federals. Order in Ayres’s division collapsed from the shock, and a blue-clad rabble streamed back through Crawford’s position at the Holliday house. Vainly, Crawford tried to redeploy his columns but found his own men confused and infected by the panic. Here and there isolated Federal units held their ground only to find themselves unsupported and outflanked by the determined attackers. Within an hour Lee’s three brigades had routed two Federal divisions and herded them back on Griffin’s reserve division like so many sheep.
Thus far Lee’s gamble had paid off. Lee then ordered CS Brigadier General Henry A. Wise’s Brigade out of the White Oak Road trenches to fill the gap left by the precipitous advance, but his weakness in numbers became painfully apparent. The thin gray line paused to reform and began scratching a rifle trench across the Holliday fields, anticipating a counterattack.
Warren and Griffin worked feverishly to reform Ayres’s and Crawford’s men as they clambered out of the swamp. Warren rode up to US Brigadier General Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s brigade of Griffin’s division waiting in line of battle, and demanded, “General Chamberlain, will you save the honor of the Fifth Corps?” On command, Chamberlain’s battle line waded down into the waist-deep water of the ravine with rifle-muskets and cartridge boxes held high, closely followed by US Colonel Edgar M. Gregory’s and US Brigadier General Joseph J. Bartlett’s brigades. From their shallow trench in the Holliday fields, the Confederates repulsed three assaults.
At about 1:00 p.m. Humphreys’s II Corps came into action, demonstrating against the Confederate entrenchments at Burgess Mill and farther east at the Crow house redoubt. These attacks prevented Lee from detaching more reinforcements for his beleaguered right. When Miles’s division forced Wise’s Brigade back into the White Oak Road trenches, taking more than 200 prisoners, the Confederate line unraveled. Ayres’s and Crawford’s divisions reformed and returned to the front, adding weight to the Federal counterattacks. For several hours the Confederates resisted, but by late afternoon the V Corps had driven them back across White Oak Road. From astride his mount Lee watched somberly as his veterans filed back into their entrenchments. The attack had failed for want of numbers, but his main line had not been breached.
The V Corps suffered 1,406 casualties and the II Corps 375. Confederate losses were estimated at 900–1,235 killed, wounded, and captured. That night the men of the V Corps were ordered to abandon the road, the ground so dearly lost and reconquered, and march by a long detour to Five Forks “to rescue Sheridan’s crowd,” as some put it.
Estimated Casualties: 1,781 US, 900– 1,235 CS
