Battle
Sheridan's attack planned for Warren to advance in a two-division front with the third division following in reserve. The right front division, under Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford, was to strike at an angle near the end of the enemy's works, and the left front, under Maj. Gen. Romeyn B. Ayres, was to strike the line head-on. But because of the faulty intelligence, the real flank was well to the west of where Sheridan thought, so Crawford's division missed the line completely as it moved forward, and Ayres's men were subjected to enfilade fire from the left as they brushed past it.
The two Union divisions floundered in confusion as they frantically attempted to reorient themselves through the heavy thickets of underbrush. The reserve division, under Maj. Gen. Charles Griffin, halted rather than add to the confusion. Warren, who chose to remain in a central location, sent all of his aides galloping off with messages to reorient the attack, but they were ineffective, so he rode out to take personal command. Meanwhile, Sheridan, riding with Ayres's vanguard, personally led the charge that breached the left flank of Pickett's line, an exploit that has been depicted heroically in paintings and lithographs of the era.
As the Confederates attempted to organize a new defensive line, Griffin's division moved in on Ayres's right and attacked. Then Warren ordered Crawford's division to join the fight from the north. Sheridan's cavalry swept around Pickett's right flank but was unable to prevent numerous Confederates from escaping. However, it was a decisive Union victory, in which nearly a third of Pickett's 9,200 men were casualties.
Read more about this topic: Battle Of Five Forks
Famous quotes containing the word battle:
“The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”
—Bible: Hebrew Ecclesiastes 9:11.
“Forty years after a battle it is easy for a noncombatant to reason about how it ought to have been fought. It is another thing personally and under fire to have to direct the fighting while involved in the obscuring smoke of it.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)
“Much have I seen and known—cities of men
And manners, climates, councils, governments,
Myself not least, but honored of them all—
And drunk delight of battle with my peers,
Far on the ringing plains of windy Troy.
I am a part of all that I have met;”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)