Art Bergeron
March 25 Operations
Thu Jul 26 08:32:49 2001


Actually, there was a direct connection with the events along the Boydton Plank Road Line and Gordon's attack on Fort Stedman. Grant and Meade realized that Lee must have weakened his lines between Petersburg and Hatcher's Run to conduct the assault east of Petersburg. Orders went out to Wright and Humphreys to drive in the Confederate pickets on their fronts and to determine if the main entrenchments had been weakened. Griffin's Division of Warren's Corps was to provide support for these probes.

Wright's attacks, in particular, had important results. His men captured the advanced Confederate picket line and turned it into their own advanced positions. This meant that a future attack would start much closer to the Confederate trenches. It also gave the Federals an opportunity to study the Confederate fortifications with their field glasses. In doing so, one of Wright's brigadiers discovered some weakly defended areas along streams that ran through the Confederate lines. These then became the objectives of the Sixth Corps attack and breakthrough on April 2, 1865.