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
Ironically, Crawford’s mistake put his division in an ideal position closing off the Confederate line of retreat. As it passed near the shad back its skirmishers snapped up two couriers that Pickett had sent off within sight of the startled Confederate commanders. With the help of a sacrificial charge by the 3rd Virginia Cavalry Pickett was able to break through the Union troops and take charge of the crumbling defences. As Wallace’s brigade was forced back up the entrenchments he pulled Mayo’s and Stuart’s brigades out of their earthworks and turned them to face the Union attacks coming in from behind the lines. But it was doubtful if the three weak Confederate brigades, fighting in the open, could do more than temporarily slow down the three Union divisions bearing down on them.
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On the far west of the line Custer pulled two of his brigades from the skirmishing and began to swing them around the other Confederate flank, hoping to cut off a Confederate retreat to the west. Around this time Confederate artillery commander William Pegram went down with a mortal wound at the Five Forks intersection.