The Battle of White Oak Road

General Grant opened an offensive on March 29, 1865, to force his way around the Confederate right flank, cut the last remaining supply lines into Petersburg, and draw Confederate forces from their defensive works. Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s cavalry moved toward Dinwiddie Court House, about five miles southwest of here, to threaten the South Side Railroad, while an infantry corps under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren and Major General Andrew A. Humphreys advanced from the Boydton Plank Road toward this point to keep Confederate reinforcements from reaching Dinwiddie Court House. In miserable weather, Federal columns crossed rising streams and pushed through thick vegetation and black mud. Brigadier General Joshua L. Chamberlain’s brigade led the advance, met Confederate resistance near Gravelly Run about 2½ miles southeast of here, then after fording the waist-high stream and moving just over one mile reached the Lewis Farm, where the fighting became severe as his men repeatedly renewed their assault under heavy fire. Confederate Lieutenant General Richard Anderson deployed his troops to stop the advance, but his men could not hold against superior Federal numbers and withdrew to the entrenchments along White Oak Road. The Federals suffered 381 casualties, including the wounding of Chamberlain, and the Confederates lost 370 men.

Virginia · United States