The Battle of Dinwiddie Court House was a minor engagement that was the immediate prelude to the decisive Battle of Five Forks, the last major battle in the Eastern Theater of the American Civil War. On March 29, 1865, with the Cavalry Corps and the II and V Corps, Philip Sheridan undertook a flank march to turn Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Petersburg defenses. A steady downpour turned the roads to mud, slowing the advance. On March 31, Maj. Gen. W.H.F. (Rooney) Lee’s cavalry and George Pickett’s infantry division met the Union vanguard north and northwest of Dinwiddie Court House and drove it back, temporarily stalling Sheridan’s movement. With Union infantry approaching from the east, Pickett withdrew before daybreak to entrench at the vital road junction at Five Forks. Lee ordered Pickett to hold this intersection at all hazard.
