Five ForksTour the BattlefieldThe ArmiesBattle Maps


The Five Forks Battlefield is about fifteen miles west of Petersburg, Virginia. Much of the battlefield has been preserved by the National Park Service as part of Petersburg National Battlefield Park. The hasty Confederate earthworks have mostly returned to the soil but the land around the five-way intersection looks much the same now as it did in 1865, and the dense woods and occasional clearing are not much different from the landscape then.

Tour the battlefield park. The tour starts at the Visitor Center and includes five additional stops where interpretive wayside markers tell the story of the battle. Walking trails also criscross the park area.

This site also includes the organization of both armies and a series of Battle Maps showing the progression of the fighting.

Sketch by Alfred Waud, "Last Stand of Pickett's Men"

Sketch by Alfred Waud, “Last Stand of Pickett’s Men”

Why did the Battle of Five Forks happen?

It was obvious to everyone that the Siege of Petersburg was nearing its end. For nine and a half months the Union armies under Ulysses S. Grant had worked to cut off the vital railroad center of Petersburg, the gateway to Richmond. Time and again Union forces started flanking maneuvers that would threaten disaster, and each time Robert E. Lee was able to scrape together a mobile reserve and halt them. His tired, starving men would turn back the latest advance and extend the earthworks a few miles more. But one by one the rail lines and roads were cut that fed the capital of the Confederacy and its principal army and the space between the men in the Confederate works grew wider.

By the end of March in 1865 only one rail line kept Petersburg alive. The Southside Railway ran west out of Petersburg past the end of the thinly stretched Confederate defenses. Lee’s already dangerously weak manpower suffered heavily from a failed attack against Union lines at Fort Stedman on March 25.

Grant saw the opportunity, and began another movemenr around Lee’s flank. To defend, Lee sent off his only mobile reserve, Pickett’s infantry division and three cavalry divisions, although doing so left his line even more dangerously thinned. Lee wanted Pickett to hold an advanced position at Dinwiddie Court House on Boydton Plank Road. But in the Battle of White Oak Road on March 31 the Union Fifth Corps took a position that cut Pickett off at Dinwiddie and forced him to fall back to Five Forks. The stage was set for the final battle.

Who fought in the Battle of Five Forks?

Confederate Major General George E. Pickett commanded 10,600 men: three brigades of infantry from his own division, two brigades detached from Major General Richard Anderson’s division, and the remnants of three divisions of cavalry under Major General Fitzhugh Lee.

Against this Union Major General Philip H. Sheridan brought his Cavalry Corps, hardened veterans who had established a reputation in the Shenandoah for successfully taking on Confederate infantry. Grant also gave Sheridan overall command of Major General Gouverneur Warren’s veteran Fifth Corps of three infantry divisions. Sheridan had over 22,000 men, outnumbering Pickett two to one.

Both forces were part of much larger armies operating in the Siege of Petersburg, but both were far enough away from the main forces that they were operating independently.

Where was the Battle of Five Forks fought?

Pickett’s men formed a defensive line around a rural road junction in Dinwiddie County, Virginia called Five Forks. It was about 14 miles southwest of Petersburg. From the intersection a road led less than three miles north to the Southside Railroad. Robert E. Lee ordered that the intersection be held “at all costs.” There was a gap of about three and a half miles between Pickett’s line and the right flank of the main Confederate line the had been pushed back the day beore at White Oak Road. The road was muddy and barely passable, but other than that was wide open to Warren’s Fifth Corps.

When was the battle fought?

The Battle of Five Forks was fought on April 1, 1865. It was at the end of the nine and a half month Siege of Petersburg. The fighting didn’t begin until late in the afternoon because Warren’s Corps, who had just fought a major battle the day before, needed time to reach Five Forks over the horrible roads in the pouring rain. Sheridan was furious, but the lateness of the attack may have worked in his favor. Pickett decided there would be no fighting that day and joined Fitz Lee at a Shad bake well behind Confederate lines.

The battle

The major fighting was over in just a couple hours. Sheridan pinned down the Confederate defensive line with his cavalry and launched Warren’s infantry in a crushing flank attack. A mistake worked to the Union’s advantage, as Crawford’s infantry division missed a vital turn into the Confederate flank, but marched deep behind the Confederate rear before Warren caught up with and redirected them to cut off the main Confederate line of retreat. The Confederate line collapsed in heavy fighting, with nearly a third of Pickett’s army casualties and the survivors scattered. Pickett was unaware of the attack until it was almost over, and did not rejoin his command until it was broken and retreating.

A Federal Victory

The victor was obvious from the casualties. The North lost about 830 men, the South 2,950, many of whom were captured.

But losses in men were only part of the story. Sheridan’s victory doomed the Southside Railroad. His cavalry would reach the railroad unopposed during the next day, April 2. With his last supply line cut, Lee had no hope of maintaining his position around Petersburg and Richmond. He started to evacuate both cities, beginning a retreat that would end with the surrender of his army at Appomattox Court House just a week later on April 9.

One Federal casualty was Warren. While he was off redirecting Crawfords division, he was accused by Sheridan of not even being on the battlefield. It was not true – an officer was killed right beside Warren – but Sheridan made it stick. Warren, the hero of many battles from the early days of the war (see his statue at Gettysburg), bitterly left the Army of the Potomac. He resigned his general’s commission and soldiered on in the Corps of Engineers as a major. When he died in 1882 he was buried in civilian clothes and without military honors – at his own request.

It was not the only career to suffer from the battle. Pickett had had a strained relationship with Robert E. Lee ever since Gettysburg. Lee blamed him for his failure to hold the flank at Five Forks and the scattering of his command. His absence at the shad bake while this happened was the ultimate insult (although he had been with Lee’s nephew). But Pickett and some of his men managed to rejoin Lee’s army during the retreat to Appomattox.