The Battle of White Oak Road
Moving into Position
With their success at Lewis Farm, Union troops gained a foothold on one of Lee’s supply routes, the Boydton Plank Road. It was strategically necessary for the Federals to control this road because it was a major route Confederate General Robert E. Lee used to transport supplies to his army from North Carolina. On March 30, General Warren pushed his men as close to the Confederate defense line along White Oak Road as possible and had them build slight earthworks.
Concerned about the Federal movement, Robert E. Lee ordered reinforcements to assist General Anderson along the White Oak Road. One unit sent to help, the 60th Alabama, reached White Oak Road then spent March 30th “on the roadside, in momentary expectation of battle,” as one member of the regiment remembered. “The fighting … did not amount to much more than heavy skirmishing, which was kept up throughout the day.”
The morning of March 31, 1865, General Robert E. Lee rode out to the White Oak Road sector of his line. Meeting with General Anderson and Major General Bushrod R. Johnson, Lee learned that the Federal troops in front of them were deployed with the left part of their lines unprotected. Lee determined to strike the Federals where they were vulnerable.
Marker can be reached from White Oak Road, on the left when traveling west.
Courtesy hmdb.org
