To Cut the Remaining Supply Lines, February 5-7, 1865

By early 1865 the Federal army's two remaining objectives along the Petersburg front were the Boydton Plank Road, an intermediate wagon supply route into the city, and the South Side Railroad, a major transportation artery from Lynchburg and the Shenandoah Valley. Union forces had already cut the Weldon Railroad as far south as Hicksford (now Emporia), forcing the Confederates to unload supplies at the station there, load them on wagons, and haul them cross-country through the Meherrin River valley to the plank road. This route took them through Dinwiddie Court House on their way to Petersburg.

On February 5, in the seventh offensive movement of the Union siege of Petersburg, Federal commander Ulysses S. Grant sent Brigadier General David McMurtrie Gregg's cavalry division, supported by Major General Andrew A. Humphreys' Second Corps and Major General Gouverneur K. Warren's Fifth Corps, toward Dinwiddie Court House to cut the Confederate supply line. Upon reaching the Hatcher's Run area, Humphreys took position north of the stream at the Vaughan Road crossing and Armstrong's Mill. His corps would guard the rest of the army from this location.

Humphreys' men began entrenching across a small creek known as Rocky Branch. Meanwhile, Confederate Brigadier General Henry Heth's division, supported on the right by Brigadier General Clement Evans' division of Major General John B. Gordon's Second Corps, prepared to attack.

Beginning about 3:45 p.m. and lasting more than an hour, the Confederates made three unsuccessful assaults on Humphrey's line. Though unable to break the Federals, the Southerners continued with sporadic artillery fire until dark.

With Humphrey's corps hold the Southerners at Hatcher's Run, Gregg's cavalry was able to reach the Boydton Plank Road. The Federal horsemen captured fewer than two-dozen wagons before being ordered back to the Vaughan Road with Warren's troops. The plank road having been scouted, Grant now gave the order to push on for the South Side Railroad. He also sent reinforcements from the Sixth and Ninth Corps to strengthen Humphreys' position.

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