Robert Alexander - Five Forks: Waterloo of the Confederacy

Copyright 2003 by Robert Alexander

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper).

Michigan State University Press
East Lansing, Michigan 48823-5245
Printed and bound in the United States of America.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Alexander, Robert (Robert E.), 1949
Five Forks : Waterloo of the Confederacy : a Civil War narrative / by Robert Alexander.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-87013-671-2 (casebound : alk. paper)
1. Five Forks, Battle of, Va., 1865Fiction. 2. United StatesHistoryCivil War, 18611865Fiction. I. Title.
PS3551.L35744 F58 2003
813.'54dc21
2002153206

Part of Calhoun's Monument first appeared in The Talking of Hands: Unpublished Writing by New Rivers Press Authors (Minneapolis, Minn.: New Rivers Press, 1998).

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders of quoted material in this book. The author apologizes if any work has been used without permission and would be glad to be told of anyone who has not been consulted.

Cover design by Heather Truelove Aiston
Book design/composition by Sharp Des!gns, Lansing, MI

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In memory of

Dorothy Richardson, 19082002

who taught me what it means

to have a Southern heart

Five Forks: At this obscure point, on the afternoon of April 1, 1865, General Philip H. Sheridan launched massive Federal assaults that broke the Southern lines after a nine-month stalemate. Lee's outnumbered army, starving on its feet, then started on a one-hundred-mile corridor of sorrows that would end at Appomattox.

JAMES I. ROBERTSON JR., Civil War Sites in Virginia

Sheridan now began to exhibit those traits that always made him a tower of strength in the presence of an enemy. He put spurs to his horse, and dashed along in front of the line of battle from left to right, shouting words of encouragement, and having something cheery to say to every regiment. Come on, men, he cried; go at em with a will! Move on at a clean jump, or you'll not catch one of em. They're all getting ready to run now, and if you don't get on to them in five minutes they'll every one get away from you! Now go for them! Just then a man on the skirmish-line was struck in the neck; the blood spurted as if the jugular vein had been cut. I'm killed! he cried, and dropped to the ground. You're not hurt a bit! cried Sheridan. Pick up your gun, man, and move right on to the front. Such was the electric effect of his words that the poor fellow snatched up his musket, and rushed forward a dozen paces before he fell, never to rise again.

HORACE PORTER, Campaigning with Grant

RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, SUNDAY, MARCH 24, 1991

Site of Rebel Waterloo Is Dedicated

By Jamie C. Ruff

Times-Dispatch state staff

DINWIDDIEThe acquisition of the Five Forks battlefield was praised yesterday as an example of how historic preservation can be achieved through the cooperation of the public and private sectors.

About 100 Tri-Cities civic and political leaders turned out for the dedication of the battlefield, a 930-acre tract five miles north of Dinwiddie Courthouse on state Route 627. The tract is now part of the Petersburg National Battlefield.

Five Forks, named for the roads that intersect there, is known as the Waterloo of the Confederacy. By the time the battle there ended April 1, 1865, Union troops had finally broken the Confederate linesending the 10-month siege of Petersburg and cutting the Army of Northern Virginia's last supply line. Within days Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox.

The battlefield was high on the list of sites the park service wanted to protect.

James W. Coleman, Jr., the park service's regional director, called the battlefield acquisition an example of our dedication to our rich past and a sterling example of the concept of the American Battlefield Protection Program, intended to bring private and federal resources together to protect important sites.

The park service was authorized to purchase the tract in 1962, but at the time the landowner, Joseph Peterson Gilliam, did not want to sell. By the time Gilliam was willing to sell, the park service did not have the money.

Eventually, his nephew inherited the land and was receptive to selling the battlefield site. In August 1989 the Conservation Fund of Arlington purchased the tract and on Dec. 29 the land was donated to the park.

Here at Five Forks, we have shown there is a cost-effective way to protect these sites that made America great, said Edwin C. Bearss, chief historian for the National Park Service.

Acquiring the land was particularly sweet because it is essentially unchanged from the time the battle was fought. The surrounding area is still rural. At the site, except for two houses and an old gas station, the fields look much as they did the day of the battle. The old gas station has been converted into a visitor center and the two houses will be torn down.

There had been three skirmishes in the area over the two previous days when, on March 29, 1865, Lee told Maj. Gen. George E. Pickett to hold Five Forks at all hazards.

The 10,000 Confederates quickly dug in, but the next day, when Union troops did not attack in mass, the commanders of the Confederate forces, Pickett and Maj. Gen. Fitzhugh Lee, left their troops to join Gen. Thomas Rosser for a shad bake.

Union Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan attacked at 4:15 P.M. with his 22,000 troops. By the time Pickett learned of the advance and returned, the battle was practically over.

Copyright Richmond Times-Dispatch.

Used with permission.