From Fort Welch, the surrounding ground was fought over in three distinct battles during the Civil War. On October 2, 1864, on the last day of the Battle of Peebles' Farm, Federal forces advanced across the ground to the left in an attempt to capture the Boydton Plank Road, a key Confederate intermediate supply route. The attack failed, but the Federals secured a foothold and established the line of works at Fort Welch. A Union war correspondent named John wrote, "There has not been a day nor an hour that out front line has not been in actual combat with the foe. Where can the student find a parallel to this in the warfare of any age or people?" A Confederate soldier, Pvt. Francis Marion Poteeet of the 49th North Carolina Infantry, CSA, wrote of privation, "We only get five little crackers for one day rations. We don't get no meat now but about a twist a week. If that ain't hard times I don't know what hard times is." On March 25, 1865, Federals attacked and captured the Confederate picket line to the front in the Battle of Jones Farm. That success served as the prelude to the massive Union attack across the field a week later, when on April 2 the Federals finally broke through the Southern lines in the attack known as the Breakthrough, causing the entire Confederate front to collapse.