[34][35] Before dawn on March 29, 1865, Warren's V Corps moved west of the Union and Confederate lines while Sheridan's cavalry took a longer, more southerly route toward Dinwiddie Court House.

Wise and Colonel Martin L. Stansel in lieu of the ill Young Marshall Moody,[47][49][50] reinforced by the brigades of Brigadier Generals Samuel McGowan and Eppa Hunton, attack the exposed Union line.

[89] Historian A. Wilson Greene has written that the best estimate of Confederate casualties in the Dinwiddie Court House engagement is 360 cavalry, 400 infantry, 760 total killed and wounded.

[102] With Sheridan fretting about the amount of remaining daylight and his cavalry possibly running out of ammunition,[103] the Union infantry forces attacked about 4:15 p.m.[104] Pickett and Fitzhugh Lee were having a late shad bake lunch about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) north of the main Confederate line along White Oak Road because they thought Sheridan was unlikely to be organized for an attack that late in the day and that General Lee would send reinforcements if Union Army infantry moved against them.

[122] On the morning of April 1, Robert E. Lee sent a letter to Jefferson Davis concerning the extension of the Union lines to Dinwiddie Court House, indicating that this cut off the route to Stony Creek depot where the cavalry's forage was delivered.

[125] While at Anderson's headquarters, Lee received Longstreet's reply that he thought that troops should be sent to Petersburg because Union gunboats would likely stop any offensive that his force attempted to make.

[151] The VI Corps was in high spirits after the success of the Valley Campaigns under Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, but the enlisted men were nervous about this attack; not realizing just how thin the Confederate lines had become.

Believing that the assault would end in a disaster similar to Cold Harbor ten months earlier, many men wrote down their names and home addresses on pieces of paper and pinned them to their shirts so their bodies could be identified afterwards.

[149][152] The Union force took some casualties, including Brigadier General Lewis Grant who suffered a severe head wound and had to relinquish command to Lieutenant Colonel Amasa S.

[167][172] The 3rd New York Independent Battery of Captain William A. Harn entered the captured works behind the infantry and put nearby Confederate artillery out of action within a few minutes.

[182] After enough of Penrose's men to carry an assault gathered in the moat in front of the Confederate earthworks, they stormed over the barrier and subdued the stubborn North Carolina defenders.

[205] Some men had advanced past the Boydton Plank Road to the South Side Railroad where they found and burned a small wagon train, cut telegraph lines and even dislodged a few rails.

[205] While some regiments stopped along the Confederate works to collect prisoners, and many stragglers continued forward, many VI Corps men congregated at or near the Boydton Plank Road.

[205] Wright and his officers brought some order to seven brigades and turned this large part of his corps to the left to deal with the troops of Major General Henry Heth's division still holding the Confederate line to the southwest with about 1,600 men.

[195] The survivors of Brigadier Generals James H. Lane's and Edward L. Thomas's brigades withdrew northeast to the old Dimmock Line defenses between the VI Corps breakthrough and Petersburg.

[216] Nathaniel Harris later commented that his disposition of men on the undulating ground must have misled the Union commanders about the size of his force because they slowly and carefully formed two lines of battle before advancing.

[221] Corporal and Color-Bearer John Kane of the 100th New York Infantry was awarded the Medal of Honor for his gallantry in the attack by posting the national flag on the wall of Fort Gregg.

[222] As Osborn's and Dandy's men were stymied in front of Fort Gregg, Brigadier General Foster sent two of Colonel Fairchild's regiments forward, merely for them also to get stuck in the muddy ditch.

[225] A total force of 4,000 men had attacked Fort Gregg, struggling for up to a half-hour to gain entry as the defenders threw "dirt, stones and various kinds of missiles," including rolled artillery shells, across the parapet onto their heads.

[214] The mass of men in the ditch had to move or be killed so they started to scale the walls and rushed around the moat to find the unfinished trench or sally port in the rear.

[213][230][231] Union veterans reported that the interior of the fort was a pool of blood with dead and dying men strewn about in its small area by the time the surviving Confederates finally surrendered.

The battery was operating from a position next to Lee's command post at the Turnbull House, also known as Edge Hill, located west of Rohoic Creek in front of the Dimmock Line.

[244] After dealing with more artillery fire from across the Appomattox River, General Grant ordered the exhausted VI Corps troops to halt and rest, which they did after completing some fortifications near the Turnbull House.

[245] When General Robert E. Lee learned of the VI Corps breakthrough, he notified Confederate President Jefferson Davis that he would be forced to abandon Richmond and Petersburg and head toward Danville that night.

[259] Union Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) John I. Curtin's brigade assaulted the fort from the rear as well as across the ditch and over the parapet, capturing three guns and several prisoners.

[259] Bryan Grimes held the second line opposite these works with two battalions of Virginia Reserves under Fletcher Archer and elements of Cowand's brigade, supported by field guns taken from Battery No.

[261][263] Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Charles H. T. Collis's Independent Brigade counterattacked to stabilize the situation for the Union troops and to reoccupy the line east of Fort Mahone.

[272] Cooke's men threw up a slender line of earthworks about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) long along Cox Road parallel to the railroad with an open field about 700 yards (640 m) with a slight slope in front.

[269] Heth had placed Cooke's men on favorable ground between Sutherland Tavern and Ocran Methodist Church with a refused left flank and sharpshooters deployed in front as skirmishers.

[276] At 3:00 p.m., Lee gave the orders for the retreat from Richmond and Petersburg, to begin at 8:00 p.m.[246] Routes of withdrawal, including designation of bridges to cross to the north side of the Appomattox River, were drawn up by Colonel Thomas M.R.