Dinwiddie Court House

Background

During the 292 days of fighting around Richmond and Petersburg, Grant faced the grinding task of wearing down a smaller Confederate force through trenches and attrition, cutting Confederate supply lines while stretching the rebel defenses until they broke. The clash at Hatcher's Run on February 5 through 7, 1865 pushed both armies' lines out another four miles, leaving Lee with almost nothing in reserve to cover his lengthened positions. Lee recognized that he would soon need to pull some or all of his men away from the Petersburg and Richmond defenses, secure provisions at Danville or perhaps Lynchburg, and unite with Johnston's army, which was then facing Sherman in North Carolina. His hope was that a swift Confederate victory over Sherman might let him turn back toward Grant before Union forces could join together. He began readying his army for this movement and shared his thinking with Davis and Breckinridge.

Lee understood that if Johnston failed to check Sherman, the Union armies might combine at Petersburg, and he knew his shrinking force could not hold its current lines indefinitely. Hoping to delay Grant while buying time for his planned withdrawal, Lee weighed and ultimately approved Gordon's proposal in March 1865 to strike Fort Stedman. The goal was either to shatter the Union line east of Petersburg outright or to force the Federals to pull back and shorten their own lines through a costly, damaging assault. Success would let Lee thin his defenses and dispatch reinforcements to Johnston, or at minimum give the Confederates a head start on abandoning Richmond and Petersburg to unite fully with Johnston's dwindling command.

Gordon launched his surprise strike before dawn on March 25, 1865, but it collapsed, costing the Confederates roughly 4,000 men, a thousand of them captured, losses they could scarcely absorb. The Union defenders held their ground entirely, and their own losses were minor enough that they pressed forward almost immediately. That same afternoon, Union troops from the II Corps and VI Corps answered the Fort Stedman assault by seizing Confederate picket lines near Armstrong's Mill in what became the Battle of Jones's Farm, pushing the Union left about a quarter mile nearer the Confederate works. This placed the VI Corps a mere half mile from the Confederate line, well within striking range. Following these twin defeats, Lee understood Grant would soon target the last Confederate supply arteries into Petersburg, the South Side Railroad and Boydton Plank Road, a move that could also seal off any escape route from the two cities.

Even before Gordon's attack, on March 24, Grant had already mapped out an offensive to begin March 29. He hoped either to lure the Confederates into open combat and break their fighting strength, or, should they stay put, to sever their remaining rail and road links, the South Side Railroad and Boydton Plank Road, which tied into the already cut Weldon Railroad and the Richmond and Danville line, thereby stretching Lee's defenses past their limit.

To free up troops for this push, Grant had Ord shift part of the Army of the James from positions near Richmond to cover ground the II Corps, under Humphreys, would vacate at the southwestern end of the Petersburg line. Ord brought over two divisions of Gibbon's XXIV Corps, led by Devens and Birney, along with one division of Turner's XXV Corps, to hold the lines south of the Appomattox River. This maneuver released two full corps of Meade's Army of the Potomac, Humphreys's II Corps and Warren's V Corps, for an assault on Lee's flank and rail lines. Grant directed these corps westward alongside Sheridan's cavalry, still known as the Army of the Shenandoah, made up of Devin's First Division and Custer's Third Division under Merritt's overall command as an unofficial corps leader, plus Crook's Second Division on loan from the Army of the Potomac. Their first task was to seize Dinwiddie Court House and cut the Boydton Plank Road there.

Already anxious about his army's ability to hold Richmond and Petersburg much longer, Lee grasped that the Stedman defeat would spur Grant to strike at his supply lines and right flank, and he had already begun shifting reinforcements to that end of his line. Early on March 29, he sent Pickett west along the crumbling South Side Railroad to Sutherland Station with three brigades under Terry, Corse, and Steuart. The trains crawled so slowly that