Battle of White Oak Road: Cutting the Last Lifeline

The Battle of White Oak Road, fought on March thirty-first, eighteen sixty-five, was the Union Army's seizure of a key Confederate supply and communication route in the final days of the Petersburg siege. It happened the same day as the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House, just a few miles to the south, and together the two actions set the stage for the catastrophe at Five Forks the following day.

Grant ordered the Fifth Corps, under General Gouverneur Warren, to push west from the existing Union lines and seize the White Oak Road, a key Confederate route connecting their right flank positions to Petersburg. Warren advanced on the morning of March thirty-first, but Confederate forces under Bushrod Johnson struck first and drove the Union infantry back in disorder.

The Fifth Corps steadied its line and attacked again. By mid-afternoon the Fifth Corps had retaken the White Oak Road and consolidated its position. The Confederate right flank was now separated from its supporting road network. Pickett's force, which had pushed Sheridan back at Dinwiddie Court House that same afternoon, found itself isolated to the south, connected to Petersburg only by the Five Forks junction.

Grant's operational design was working exactly as intended. He was not trying to win any single battle. He was maneuvering Pickett's command into an isolated position where it could be destroyed. The White Oak Road victory severed the road link; the next morning the Union concentrated its full weight at Five Forks and crushed Pickett while he was away from his command.

The loss of White Oak Road was one of the last things Lee could have responded to. By the time he understood the full situation, April second had arrived.