‘Moving Into Position’ is the third wayside marker along the Civil War Trust’s battlefield trail at White Oak Road. The marker, erected by the Civil War Preservation Trust, is on the south side of White Oak Road.
‘March 31, 1865’ is the next wayside marker along the trail.
The view looks east along the walking trail, which has crossed to the south side of White Oak Road. The remnants of the Confederate defenses are now on the left side of the trail.
From the marker:
Moving Into Position
With their success at Lewis Farm, Union troops gained a foothold on one of Lee’s supply routes, the Boydton Plank Road. It was strategically necessary for the Federals to control this road because it was a major route Confederate General Robert E. Lee used to transport supplies to his army from North Carolina. On March 30, General Warren pushed his men as close to the Confederate defense line along White Oak Road as possible and had them build slight earthworks.
Concerned about the Federal movement, Robert E. Lee ordered reinforcements to assist General Anderson along the White Oak Road. One unit sent to help, the 60th Alabama, reached White Oak Road then spent March 30th “on the roadside, in momentary expectation of battle,” as one member of the regiment remembered. “The fighting… did not amount to much more than heavy skirmishing, which was kept up throughout the day.”
The morning of March 31, 1865, General Robert E. Lee rode out to the White Oak Road sector of his line. Meeting with General Anderson and Major General Bushrod R. Johnson, Lee learned that the Federal troops in front of them were deployed with the left part of their lines unprotected. Lee determined to strike the Federals where they were vulnerable.
From the caption to the background photo:
On the morning of March 31, 1865, the 61st New York (shown here) under Brigadier General Nelson Miles, moved into the fortifications along the Boydton Plank Road off to the southeast, relieving Brigadier General Charles Griffin’s division. The manuever allowed Griffin to shift towards the south to support the divisions of Brigadier General Romeyn Ayers and Samuel Crawford as they moved opposite the Confederate entrenchments.
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Part of this battlefield
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