Colonel Frederick Winthrop's brigade of Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division of the V Corps took a further advance position across Gravelly Run near the Confederate White Oak Road Line in torrential rain on March 30, 1865.

Warren's corps, led by Brevet Major General Charles Griffin's First Division, counterattacked, pushed the Confederates back to their original lines, secured advanced positions and cut the Confederates access to direct communication with Pickett over White Oak Road and the Boydton Plank Road.

[5] Union General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant had to conduct a campaign of trench warfare and attrition in which the Union forces tried to wear down the less numerous Confederate Army, destroy or cut off sources of supply and supply lines to Petersburg and Richmond and extend the defensive lines which the outnumbered and declining Confederate force had to defend to the breaking point.

[6][7] After the Battle of Hatcher's Run on February 5–7, 1865 extended the lines another 4 miles (6.4 km), Lee had few reserves after manning the lengthened defenses.

[30][31] Lee, who was already concerned about the ability of his weakening army to maintain the defense of Petersburg and Richmond, realized that the defeat at Fort Stedman would encourage Grant to make a move like the one he was planning.

[23][35][36] Along Quaker Road, across Rowanty Creek at the Lewis Farm, Chamberlain's men encountered brigades of Confederate Brigadier Generals Henry A.

Chamberlain's brigade, reinforced by a four-gun artillery battery and regiments from the brigades of Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Edgar M. Gregory and Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Alfred L. Pearson, who was later awarded the Medal of Honor, drove the Confederates back to their White Oak Road Line.

[42] Late in the afternoon of March 29, 1865, Sheridan's cavalry occupied Dinwiddie Court House on the Boydton Plank Road without opposition.

[42][44] Following the Battle of Lewis's Farm, in the heavy rain on the night of March 29, Lee sent Brigadier General Samuel McGowan's brigade to bolster Anderson's defense of the end of the line.

[48] On March 30, a day of steady torrential rain, the Union forces consolidated their positions while Lee completed his orders for Major General George Pickett together with cavalry help from Major General Fitzhugh Lee to form a mobile task force to move 4 miles (6.4 km) from the end of the Confederate line near Hatcher's Run to Five Forks.

With the gap between the end of the Confederate White Oak Road Line southwest of Petersburg and Pickett's force at Five Forks in mind, on March 30, Lee made additional deployments to strengthen his right flank.

[49] Another of Wilcox's brigades, that of Brigadier General Young Marshall Moody under the temporary command of Colonel Martin L. Stansel, was moved to the rifle pits south of Burgess Mill.

[54] The incessant rain severely hampered operations and the Union army's mobile force's ability to keep supplies moving to their new positions.

[48][59] Humphrey's corps also moved as close to the Confederate line as possible without starting a general engagement and entrenched at the forward positions.

[64] The lead brigade under Colonel Frederick Winthrop crossed a swollen branch of Gravelly Run which was to feature in the following day's battle.

[65] As dark approached, Ayres had a number of outposts prepared to cover his position, which turned out to be about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) beyond the point where the Confederate line veered sharply back to the north.

Wise and Colonel Martin L. Stansel in lieu of Brigadier General Young Marshall Moody who was ill.[54][69][71] The four Confederate brigades from three divisions, which were in turn from three different corps, worked well together in the actions on March 31.

[72] Before Johnson's brigades could start their attack on the advance Union position, at Ayres's request, Warren moved a brigade from Brigadier General and Brevet Major General Samuel W. Crawford's division toward White Oak Road in order to secure Ayres's position and to disperse the Confederate pickets.

[74] General Lee finally ordered Wise to take up a position on Hunton's left as regiments from one of Crawford's other two brigades put up stiff resistance to the advancing Confederates.

[79][84] Warren's heroic effort was to no avail and he retreated across the creek, stopped the panic and had the scattered regiments reform behind Griffin's division.

[84] The last organized resistance across Gravelly Run was Colonel John A. Kellogg's brigade of Crawford's division which was driven back after a fighting retreat.

[82] Griffin's division and the V Corps artillery under Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Charles S. Wainwright, which had to carry their four guns forward through the mud, finally stopped the Confederate advance short of crossing Gravelly Run.

Ayres's division, which had not engaged in the combat as Chamberlain and Gregory pushed the Confederates back, stopped just short of White Oak Road, facing west toward Five Forks.

[106] Webb stated that it was believed that Sheridan was advancing but in fact they were being pushed back by Pickett's force at the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House.

[69] But when Warren heard the sound of the distant battle receding toward Dinwiddie Court House, he sent Brigadier General Joseph J. Bartlett's brigade of Griffin's division to reinforce Sheridan and attack Pickett's force on its flank.

[111] Pickett realized his position was untenable after he learned between 9:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. that Bartlett's brigade was on its way to reinforce Sheridan, exposing his force to flanking Union infantry attack.

[113] Bartlett's brigade was only the lead unit for all of Griffin's and Crawford's divisions which were put on the march later that night and would have trapped Pickett's force between them and Sheridan's troops.

[120] When Grant notified Sheridan that the V Corps and Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry had been ordered to his support, he gratuitously and without any basis said that Warren should reach him "by 12 tonight," an impossibility under the circumstances.

[115] Warren's gains along the White Oak Road on March 31, 1865 and the movement of Warren's divisions which sent Pickett's men back to Five Forks from Dinwiddie Court House and later positioned his corps with Sheridan's force set the stage for the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Five Forks the following day and the Union breakthrough at the Third Battle of Petersburg on April 2, 1865.

[126] A walking trail of two-thirds of a mile includes the remains of Confederate earthworks and two well-preserved gun emplacements as well as signs detailing the 1865 battle.