White Oak Road • Tour the Battlefield • The Armies • Battle Maps
Warren advanced the three brigades of Ayers’ division toward White Oak Road, with Crawford’s division in support. Lieutenant General Richard Anderson commanded Confederate troops on this part of the battlefield. General Lee, very aware of the danger to his flank, had ridden down to join him from his headquarters on the west side of Petersburg. Lee ordered McGowan’s South Carolina brigade to leave a thin line of skirmishers in the trenches west of Burgess Tavern and march with most of his brigade to reinforce the Confederate right along Claiborne Road. It was one more installment of the painful thinning and stretching that Lee had been performing for the nine months of the Petersburg siege as Grant repeatedly used his superior numbers to edge around Lee’s flank.
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