March 31, 1865---The Battle of White Oak Road

MARCH 31, 1865:      

The Battle of White Oak Road (The Battle of Hatcher’s Run; The Battle of Gravelly Run; The Battle of Boydton Plank Road):  

With his forces now in place, Robert E. Lee is prepared to meet the Federal threat to his right flank.

The weather continues to be terrible; however, Ulysses S. Grant has chosen to heed the advice of General Philip Sheridan and press forward with the Union’s Spring Offensive despite the unceasing downpour. Grant later avers that he did not want the Union public to lose heart in the face of a possible cancellation of the Offensive. 

The fact that Grant is so confident of victory in any action under such awful conditions cannot help but undermine Robert E. Lee’s own confidence. Lee knows that he will have to give up Richmond and Petersburg, but until yesterday he spoke of the military evacuation as occurring in a matter of weeks. But the aggression being demonstrated by the Federal command has him revising his estimate downward to a matter of days. 

The Battle of White Oak Road began with a thrust by General Philp Sheridan U.S.A.’s forces at General George Pickett’s lines near Dinwiddie Court House. So engaged, Pickett’s men were unavailable as reserves at White Oak Road. Although Pickett’s men stalled Sheridan’s advance, Sheridan’s overwhelming numbers alarmed Pickett, who decided to fall back toward Five Forks.

While Sheridan’s men and Pickett’s men grappled, General Gouvernor K. Warren U.S.A. hurled his Fifth Corps against the Confederate emplacements along White Oak Road. Warren moved cautiously --- too cautiously for his commander Sheridan’s liking --- and his 20,000-man force was battered by Major General Bushrod Johnson C.S.A.’s 8,000 defenders, being turned back at several places along the line. 

General Grant said of Warren:

I was so much dissatisfied with Warren’s dilatory movements in the battle of White Oak Road . . .  very much afraid that at the last moment he would fail . . . I had . . . discovered a defect which was beyond his control . . . He could see every danger at a glance before he had encountered it. 

This was a conflict of personalities, not a matter of professional competence. Had McClellan been General-in-Chief, Warren probably would have gotten a medal for his actions at White Oak Road, but he was not the man for Grant, or for Sheridan, both highly aggressive commanders. Sheridan was to relieve Warren of command before the end of the week, “for the good of the service,” and he was busted to Brigadier. A Court of Inquiry convened in 1879 found that Warren had acted appropriately at White Oak Road and restored him to rank. 

The irony of course is that both Warren and Sheridan were stalled by the rebels on this day. And in the end, the overcautious Warren did in fact regroup his men and rally them. He failed, however, to cut the road or dislodge the Southern troops from White Oak Road. At best, the battle is a draw. 

General Gouvernor K. Warren U.S.A.