On March 30, Lee shifted reinforcements to meet
the Federal movement to turn his right flank, placing Maj. Gen. W.H.
Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry divisions at Five Forks and transferring
Pickett's division from the Bermuda Hundred front to the extreme right.
Warren pushed the V Corps forward and entrenched a line to cover the
Boydton Plank Road from its intersection with Dabney Mill Road south to
Gravelly Run. Ayres's division advanced northwest toward White Oak Road.
On March 31, in combination with Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan's thrust via
Dinwiddie Court House, Warren directed his corps against the
Confederate entrenchments along White Oak Road, hoping to cut Lee's
communications with Pickett at Five Forks. The Union advance was stalled
by a crushing counterattack directed by Maj. Gen. Bushrod Johnson, but
Warren's position stabilized and his soldiers closed on the road by
day's end. This fighting set up the Confederate defeat at Five Forks on
April 1.