The Battle of Five Forks
Cedar Mountain. Second Manassas. Antietam. Fredericksburg. Chancellorsville. Gettysburg. The Wilderness. Spotsylvania Court House. Cold Harbor. Assault on Petersburg. These battles are well-known to anyone who has studied the American Civil War. Each of these battles is famous (or infamous) for different reasons. Cedar Mountain is known for two firsts: the first, and only, time Thomas Jackson drew his sword in battle, and the first time Clara Barton took to the battlefield to care for the wounded. The Confederate victory at Second Manassas allowed Lee to cross the Potomac and invade the North for the first time. The Battle of Antietam, September 17, 1862, was the bloodiest day of the entire war. Despite being a draw, President Lincoln claimed victory and issued the Emancipation Proclamation. Fredericksburg led to Burnside being relieved of command from the Army of the Potomac. The Confederate victory at Chancellorsville is considered to be Lee’s greatest and is also where Stonewall Jackson was mortally wounded. Pickett’s Charge at Gettysburg is considered to be the high-water mark of the Confederacy. The Battle of the Wilderness was Grant’s first as commander of all Federal forces. Major General John Sedgwick, who was the commander of the Union Sixth Corps, was killed at Spotsylvania Court House. He was the highest-ranking Union officer killed during the war. The Union army suffered a significant defeat at Cold Harbor, about which General Grant would later say, “I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made…No advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained.” A few days later, Grant and Union forces missed the opportunity to capture Petersburg in June 1864, which would not fall until April 2, 1865.
What do all of these well-known battles of the Civil War have in common? The Sixth Wisconsin Infantry Regiment fought at each one. As part of the famed Iron Brigade, they earned the distinction of being “perhaps the most distinguished infantry brigade in the Federal armies.” In fact, “a greater proportion of its men had been killed in combat than in any other Federal brigade. To this record, Rufus Dawes’ Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers was no small contributor.” According to historian Gary W. Gallagher, the Iron Brigade received its ‘baptism of combat’ against Stonewall Jackson at Second Manassas, and “stalwart contributions followed at Antietam and Fredericksburg before the brigade rendered its greatest service on the first day at Gettysburg.”
One battle is conspicuous in its absence from this list: the Battle of Five Forks. The Battle of Five Forks is not nearly as well-known, yet it is described as “a tremendous victory for the Union Army — in some ways, the great, decisive victory of the whole Civil War.” Rufus Dawes wrote the most well-known regimental history of the Sixth WI, A Full Blown Yankee of the Iron Brigade: Service with the Sixth Wisconsin Volunteers, but he was honorably discharged in 1864, prior to the Battle of Five Forks. The Iron Brigade: A Military History by Alan T. Nolan contains only minimal information on the Sixth Wisconsin’s contribution to the battle.
Curtis King, in his article published in the “Civil War Times,” provides an excellent overview of the battle, but the Sixth Wisconsin’s role is not mentioned. Noah Andre Trudeau does the same in his article in “MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History.” As a majority of the existing scholarship on the Sixth Wisconsin’s efforts at the Battle of Five Forks comes from firsthand accounts, this paper will attempt to fill in the blanks.
The Battle of Five Forks was fought on April 1, 1865. Five Forks, according to Bruce Catton, was “just a place in the dreary pine flats where the important roadways crossed.” General Ulysses S. Grant and his armies had kept the Confederates at Petersburg trapped inside the city for the previous eight months while cutting off nearly all supplies and reinforcements. After Robert E. Lee led a failed attack on nearby Fort Stedman in an attempt to break out of Petersburg, Grant seized on the opportunity to cut off any further supplies from the railroads that entered the western side of the city.
In the days leading up to the battle, the men of the Sixth Wisconsin were in good spirits, due in large part to one particular event. They had the privilege of being reviewed by President Lincoln, who “rode down the front of our lines, carrying his hat in his right hand.” President Lincoln bowed to the soldiers in each regiment as he passed and “the officers and men cheered him most heartily.” Over the next two days, the men of the 6th Wisconsin could hear heavy firing and skirmishes on their left but seemed unconcerned. They played ball in the afternoon of the 28th, after receiving orders to be ready to move at 3 A.M. the next morning.
The first contact with the Confederates occurred on March 29, as Grant sent the Federal V Corps, to which the 6th Wisconsin was attached, to test the extreme western flank below Petersburg. The men of the V Corps were under the command of General Gouverneur Warren. This skirmish marks the beginning of the Appomattox Campaign, which would culminate in Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9.
The 6th Wisconsin rose at 2 a.m. on the morning of the 29th. They marched down Halifax Road, crossed Gravelly Run (one of the names given to the battle on March 29) and took up their positions on the front line near Boydtown Plank Road. By the end of the day, the Sixth Wisconsin, part of the 1st Brigade under the command of John Kellogg, helped drive the Confederates across Boydtown Plank Road. The fierce fighting led to 5 men killed, 34 wounded, and 32 missing from the Sixth Wisconsin. At the same time, Sheridan led his cavalry to Dinwiddie Court House, five miles south of Five Forks. His three cavalry divisions, made up of 13,000 soldiers, easily defeated the Confederates there, who retreated north to Five Forks.
That evening, Kellogg, who had twice escaped from Confederate POW camps by using the Underground Railroad to eventually make it back to his regiment, ordered his men to build breastworks along the road. Companies A and B of the 6th Wisconsin were on picket duty overnight until they were relieved by soldiers from the 91st New York.
Overnight, the weather turned foul. Evening rain turned into snow, then turned back into rain on the morning of the 30th. The Sixth Wisconsin moved to the left side of the front lines during the day, “the mud and slush was over shoe tops and raining very hard.” The weather cleared up in the evening but began raining anew the morning of the 31st. A combination of the weather conditions and conflicting orders resulted in the men of the V Corps making only minimal progress on the 30th.
On the night of the 30th, Warren received orders to move to support General Philip Sheridan and his cavalry at Dinwiddie Court House. Sheridan wanted Warren in position by dawn in order to catch Pickett between his own cavalry and the infantry of the V Corps. This maneuver appeared to be very simple. Fewer than six miles separated Warren’s men and Sheridan’s cavalry. Unfortunately for the men of the V Corps, however, that move would be made through the mud and slush described above. “The job which looked very simple, was in actual fact, quite impossible.” Sheridan’s cavalry clashed with the combined force of infantry and cavalry under the command of Major General George Pickett on March 31st, but Pickett’s men had already retreated to Five Forks by the time Warren’s V Corps got into position to offer any support.
The Appomattox Campaign featured an interesting collection of leaders for each side. General Grant and General Lee were at the top of the chain of command. Sheridan had a well-earned reputation for his aggressive leadership. Pickett and Warren are both famous for their role at the Battle of Gettysburg. Warren is credited with recognizing the danger to Little Round Top, “a move that likely saved the entire Federal line at Gettysburg.” Also present for the four-day series of battles were Union General George Custer, who later earned his fame at Little Bighorn, and Confederate Major General W. H. Fitzhugh Lee, the nephew of Robert E. Lee.
The battle of White Oak Road did not start well for the Union army. Major General Ayers, commander of the Second Division, and Major General Crawford of the Third Division led the attack which began around 10:00 a.m. The Confederates, however, led by Major General Bushrod Johnson, went on the offensive and caught the two divisions unprepared. Ayres Second Division quickly broke ranks and began to retreat. Crawford gave orders to Kellogg and the veterans of the Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin to halt the retreat without success. Ayres’ men had already reached a panic and they quickly passed through the ranks of Kellogg’s men.
The men of the Sixth and Seventh Wisconsin did not join in the panic. They once again showed why they had earned their well-deserved nickname, the Iron Brigade. With the help of Kellogg’s third regiment, the 91st New York, they stood their ground against the Confederate charge, and in the words of Philip Creek of the Sixth Wisconsin, “Company A proved that drafted men could fight. Their stand at the fence and the work they did was entitled to great praise.” Unfortunately, the retreat of the Second Division left Kellogg’s right flank open to attack. Fighting every inch, the First Brigade conducted an organized retreat, holding the line as General Warren and others organized the remainder of the V Corps for a counterattack. In his after-action report, John Kellogg proudly declared, “My command were the last organized troops to leave the field.”
The Sixth Wisconsin, as part of the counterattack against the Confederates, “drove the enemy over one mile beyond our former most advanced position.” By the end of the day, the Union army had taken control of White Oak Road, effectively cutting off George Pickett’s direct line of communication with Robert E. Lee in Petersburg. “Indeed, the southerners were worse off than before because they had lost control of the vital White Oak Road.”
The fight for White Oak Road set the stage for the Battle of Five Forks, which was fought on April 1, 1865. The 6th Wisconsin encountered an unusual sight as the day began. While once again on the front line, they began their advance and were approached by what appeared to be a group of 25 Confederate cavalrymen. Thankfully, someone recognized one of the cavalrymen as a Union scout before they opened fire on the horsemen.
Sheridan hoped to capture Pickett and the Confederate army in Five Forks by conducting a frontal assault with his cavalry as Warren and the V Corps attacked the Confederate’s eastern flank. “In conception, Sheridan’s battle plan was excellent, but from the outset, it ran into the usual problem of human fallibility.” Confusion reigned among the various divisions and brigades of the V Corps, due to a combination of confusing and conflicting orders, inaccurate information concerning the exact location of the Confederate lines, Warren’s passivity, and simply the ‘fog of war.’ Warren first met with Sheridan at about 11:00 a.m. but did not have his men in position to order the attack until late afternoon. This delay would ultimately cause Sheridan to relieve Warren of command immediately after the battle.
Despite this delay and confusion, the ineptness of the Confederate leadership far surpassed the supposed failures of Warren. Pickett and Fitz Lee were attending a Shad bake almost a mile and a half from the front lines on April 1. Thanks to “a rare phenomenon known as an acoustic shadow,” neither Pickett nor Lee heard the sounds of battle. The battle was nearly over by the time they reached their troops, and the men serving under them were unable to form a cohesive defense, despite their best efforts.
Kellogg’s brigade led the way, and despite conflicting orders from Sheridan and Warren, pushed on ahead of the rest of the V Corps, rapidly advancing on the eastern flank of the Confederates. They stalled briefly when a Confederate cavalry patrol under the command of Brigadier General Munford opened fire on them, but with support from the 91st New York, which was being held in reserve, they were able to force the rebels out of the house they were using as cover and continue on. By this time, Pickett was racing back to his army and arrived just in time to see Munford’s cavalry retreating. The Third Brigade continued on and marched so quickly that the rest of Crawford’s division could not keep up.
The rest of the V Corps caught up as they approached Five Forks, and the order was given to attack. Sheridan and his cavalry were holding the Confederate’s attention to the south as Crawford’s Division once again led the charge against the unprepared Confederate flank. The Union advance overwhelmed the defenders with Warren leading the charge on horseback. Throughout the evening, the Union soldiers rooted out the remaining pockets of resistance, capturing several thousand prisoners, with the Sixth Wisconsin also capturing four Confederate cannon. Over the course of the four days of fighting, the Confederate army lost more than 12,000 soldiers killed, wounded, or taken prisoner. William Henry Church of Company G of the Sixth Wisconsin described the fighting on April 1 in a letter home to his wife claiming that “Nothing could resist the terrible impetuosity of that charge as fired with Patriotism and a sense of right our Brave Boys pressed onward, through woods, streams, marshes, and swamps and over hills, fences, fields, and works amid the waving of banners, the clash and roar of musketry and their own hearty cheers.”
The next day, April 2, the men of Company A learned that General Warren had been relieved of command. Philip Creek claimed “a great injustice had been done him,” yet they also admired General Sheridan as a soldier. History has now shown that Creek was right. It was not until 1879 that President Hayes would grant Warren a court of inquiry to investigate the charges. Warren was exonerated of all four charges he faced, but not until three months after he died of heart failure.
The Union victory at Five Forks carried with it several important strategic implications. First, the casualties inflicted on the Confederates, along with the many prisoners taken, severely limited any military options left to Robert E. Lee. Second, defending Petersburg, which had held out for nearly a year, was no longer an option for the Confederates. Third, with Lee’s army having to abandon Petersburg, they would be forced to fight in the open rather than behind the city’s fortifications, where the numerical advantage enjoyed by the Union army would be overwhelming. This all added up to the Union victory at Five Forks being “sweeping and complete.”
A few days later, on April 9, “the work begun at Five Forks was finished in triumph at Appomattox Courthouse.” Robert E. Lee surrendered to General Ulysses S. Grant, effectively bringing an end to the Civil War. William Church wrote a letter to his wife on April 10 describing the scene.
Rejoice with me and all lovers of Our Country in the downfall of the rebellion. The Commander-In-Chief of the Confederate Armies — Gen. Lee — has, on Gen. Grant’s own terms, surrendered with 30,000 men…and such a shout of cheering and beating of drums, sounding of all manner of music, and firing of guns both large and small could not have been surpassed even by our own Patriot Forefathers when they secured to themselves and all future generations of America the great boon of Liberty and Independence.
Church had been shot in the leg at Five Forks, but he was able to leave the field hospital to observe the historic event at Appomattox. Peter Adrian of Company C, whom Rufus Dawes described as having “developed a remarkable capacity for stopping bullets” was wounded for the third time at Five Forks.
The Sixth Wisconsin Regiment, part of the famed Iron Brigade, served with distinction at Five Forks, concluding an impeccable record of service begun at Cedar Mountain. In the words of a poem penned by James Sullivan of Company K, “And they look back with pride to the days when they fought. That the work of the ‘Fathers’ should not be for naught. And he should be excused, who in boasting has said, ‘I was one of the men of the Iron Brigade.’”
The bicentennial celebrations of the end of the Civil War have drawn more attention to the Appomattox Campaign and the Battle of Five Forks. Even with that new attention, the Sixth Wisconsin’s role has largely been ignored. A majority of my information specific to the 6th Wisconsin Regiment came from primary sources. The more contemporary sources focus primarily on Antietam and Gettysburg. Many of the men who fought at those battles had been killed, wounded, or had mustered out of the regiment by 1865. Many of the men of the sixth Wisconsin that served at Five Forks were not part of the famed actions at the bloody railroad cut at Gettysburg. Their stand at White Oak Road proved that they were worthy of the regimental nickname. Men like Isaac Shauger of Company I who didn’t enlist until 1864 deserve to have their story told as well.
Select Bibliography
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