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Five Forks • Tour the Battlefield • The Armies • Battle Maps
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Strategic Situation • Confederate Position • Union Forces Arrive • Union Infantry Form Up
Union Infantry Attacks • Crawford Goes Astray • Confederate Line Crumples • Confederate Last Stand

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The brief Confederate stand north of the intersection collapsed and Crawford’s Division swung west.

< Previous map: The Confederate Line Crumples

Pickett swung his last infantry brigade, Montgomery Course’s Virginians, across the White Oak Road for a last stand. They staggered Crawford’s division with a deadly volley, but Warren seized the Fifth Corps flag and rode to the front of the attack. Warren’s horse went down and Warren would have been hit as well had not Lieutenant Colonel Hollon Richardson thrown himself in front of Warren, but the Union attack surged forward and over the Virginians. On the western flank Custer led two of his brigades in a saber charge on ‘Roonie’ Lee’s cavalry, who were guarding the last Confederate escape route.

The Confederate last stand collapsed, but it had bought time for around 7,000 of Pickett’s survivors to escape to the north. Pickett had lost a third of his men and the road to the vital Southside Railroad was wide open. Sheridan would reach it the next day, Richmond would be evacuated, and in a little more than a week Lee would surrender at Appomattox.