Existing comment:
Digging In
Just before noon on April 1, 1865, 10,000 Confederates under Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett arrived here at Five Forks. They immediately started digging and by mid-afternoon had constructed a rough earthwork that extended along the White Oak Road for nearly two miles. You are standing at the center of that Confederate line.
Weary, wet, and hungry, the Confederates waited – aware that if they yielded, nothing would stand between the Federals and the South Side Railroad, the last supply line into Petersburg. Until 4 p.m. the Confederates waited quietly behind the works. Then they saw them: men in blue, advancing astride the Dinwiddie Road. The rattle of musketry soon signaled the opening of the Battle of Five Forks.
Most of the Confederate works built on April 1 have been obliterated. The best and most important surviving section is at the "Angle," on the extreme left of the line – about 3/4 mile to your left. |