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    Petersburg

    National Battlefield Virginia

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Lewis Farm

Prelude

March 28, 1865

In late March, cavalry commander Gen. Sheridan (USA) arrived in Petersburg having completed a successful campaign in the Shenandoah Valley. Gen. Grant (USA) instructed Sheridan and Gen. Warren (USA) to march west to capture the Boydton Plank Road and threaten the South Side Railroad. Even if the rail line was not seized this movement was to prevent Gen. Lee (CSA) from leaving Petersburg and heading to North Carolina to join another Confederate army there.


March 29, 1865

Lewis Farm - March 29, 1865

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 






As Sheridan's men headed towards Dinwiddie Court House, Warren's V Corps turned north to take Boydton Plank Road.

Gen. Chamberlain's (USA) brigade was the lead element of the V Corps as a sharp fire fight swirled around the Lewis Farm. With repeated attacks and counter attacks the Confederates were finally driven back to their entrenchments along White Oak Road. Boydton Plank Road was in Union hands.


Aftermath

March 30, 1865

This action would be quickly followed by the fight at White Oak Road on March 31, 1865. This in turn set up the battle of Five Forks. Nonetheless, this one-day battle achieved what the last two Union offensives had not, the severing of the Boydton Plank Road, Lee's supply line to the south.

Return to Battles of the Siege

Did You Know?

Richard Eppes, 1890s

Richard Eppes, owner of Appomattox Plantation, which is currently part of the Grant's HQ Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield, noted that it took 8,320 pounds of bacon each year to feed his 127 enslaved people in 1860.