Five Forks • Tour the Battlefield • The Armies • Battle Maps
Both armies at Five Forks were detachments of much larger forces involved in the siege of Petersburg. But they were operating far enough on the flank of both armies that they could not be supported during the time of the battle and were effectively fighting on their own.
Organization of the Confederate States Army at the Battle of Five Forks
Organization of the United States Army at the Battle of Five Forks
Grant chose hard hitting Philip Sheridan to outflank the Confederate line and break the Southside Railroad. Sheridan had just arrived from clearing the Confederates from the Shenandoah Valley. He had brought two divisions of cavalry with him, troopers armed with repeaters and an aggressive attitude that were very comfortable in going to face to face with Confederate infantry. They joined up with two more divisions, one of which had been their comrades in the Army of the Potomac and the other, Mackenzie’s Division, was on loan from the Army of the James. The cavalry would be under the command of Wesley Merritt while Sheridan took overall command of the force.
Grant also sent an infantry corps to cooperate with the cavalry. The nearest unit was the Fifth Corps under Gouverneur Warren. It wasn’t Sheridan’s first choice. All through his Valley Campaign he had worked with the Sixth Corps, who he knew and trusted. But the Sixth was holding a line of trenches far to the east and would take time – probably days – to join Sheridan. Sheridan would have to make do with the Fifth and its three divisions of infantry.
Not that there was anything wrong with the Fifth Corps. This was the corps that had held Little Round Top at Gettysburg and had fought on a dozen fields since then. It was true that it had left many of its best men on those fields or sent them home missing arms and legs or with shattered health. One of its brigades was made up of the survivors of nine veteran regiments who were outnumbered by another brigade made up of just two regiments of new recruits and conscripts. But this was a condition shared by all of the Army of the Potomac’s units.
Sheridan’s problem was with Gouverneur Warren. Warren had been given command of the Fifth Corps for saving Little Round Top at Gettysburg, when he had been chief engineer of the army. And the main objection Sheridan had with Warren was he commanded like an engineer, detail-oriented and methodical. It was the opposite of Sheridan’s fast-moving, smash ’em up style of warfare. Grant knew this – he was also losing patience with Warren – and gave Sheridan the power to relieve Warren at any time.
The Confederate forces at Five Forks had a similar structure, if only half as many men. Their commander, George Pickett, was the senior major general in the Confederacy. Gettysburg was his first major battle commanding his division, which was annihilated in the charge that bears his name. The shattered division was detached to rear areas to recruit and rebuild its strength, and hadn’t rejoined the army for almost a year.
Pickett brought three brigades of his old division to Five Forks, all Virginians, although like many veteran Union outfits the Gettysburg veterans were outnumbered by new recruits and conscripts. Two other infantry brigades reinforced him from Anderson’s division, one from North Carolina and one from South Carolina.
The infantry had spent the fall and winter in the trenches around Richmond. They were badly clothed and equipped and had lived on the edge of starvation for months. Their stamina to fight a long battle or make a difficult march was in question, although they were happy to be out of the trenches and in the open country. And, as Sheridan would discover, they were still full of fight.
The infantry were supported by three divisions of cavalry under Fitzhugh Lee. The divisions were very much reduced in size from the glory days of Southern cavalry and did not compare in numbers with Yankee divisions. The biggest problem was fodder. Horses eat much more than people, and Lee had not been able to feed his horses over the winter.
Another problem was the Southern cavalryman owned and provided his own horse. If an animal died there was no remount bureau to give him another like in the Northern armies. He either had to find a replacement himself or become an infantryman – a fate worse than death to a Southern cavalier. Either way they were generally lost to the dwindling Confederate cavalry.
The two forces facing each other at Five Forks were a microcosm of the whole Siege of Petersburg – a hungry, ill-equipped, outnumbered army facing a larger, well-fed, well equipped opponent. Fortifications and, in many cases, superior leadership had kept the South alive, if not completely victorious, for the nine months of the Siege. It would come to an end at Five Forks.