n the spring of 1865 Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had an opportunity to force Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia out of its entrenchments at Petersburg by threatening its last supply line the South Side Railroad. Grant ordered Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan and his cavalry to advance on the railroad by way of an important road junction known as Five Forks. Lee countered this move by ordering Maj. Gen. George Pickett with his infantry division and cavalry under Thomas Munford W.H.F. Lee and Thomas Rosser to hold the vital crossroads "at all hazards." After discovering the Confederate force Sheridan secured infantry support from Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's Fifth Corps. After briefly stalling the Union advance on March 31 Pickett withdrew his command to Five Forks and fortified his position. The next day while Sheridans cavalry pinned the Confederates in position the Fifth Corps assaulted the Confederate left flank and rear turning their position and taking scores of prisoner