Line, Grant decided to expand Sheridan's mission to a major offensive rather than just a railroad raid and forced extension of the Confederate line. He wrote in his letter to Sheridan: "I now feel like ending the matter...." Lee's actions Lee had anticipated that with the Confederate defeat at Fort Stedman and the arrival of Sheridan's cavalry at Petersburg, Grant would make a move on Lee's right flank such as Grant had ordered on March 24. Lee had only 6,000 cavalry north of the James River or at Stony Creek Depot, south of Petersburg and about 5,000 effective infantry that he could send to extend his line to the west to counter the anticipated Union movement. In the morning on March 29, Lee prepared to have Major General George Pickett take this force to Sutherland Station and move to protect Five Forks in Dinwiddie County. Lee ordered Pickett to take the brigades of Brigadier Generals William R. Terry, Montgomery Corse and George H. Steuart on the Southside Railroad to Sutherland Station, west of Petersburg, and he ordered Brigadier General Eppa Hunton to be ready to move to reinforce Pickett or to defend the junction of the Southside and Richmond and Danville Railroads at Burkeville, Virginia. Lee also ordered Major General Fitzhugh Lee to take his cavalry division to Sutherland Station and join with the cavalry divisions of Major Generals Rooney Lee and Thomas L. Rosser. Fitzhugh Lee was ordered to take command of the combined cavalry. General Lee thought that Pickett might be able to extend the Confederate line from its right flank east of Five Forks to Five Forks. The Union Army movement on March 29 troubled Lee so he ordered additional movements to strengthen his right flank. Besides moving Brigadier General Samuel McGowan's brigade farther west to extend Johnson's line along White Oak Road, he thinned the White Oak Road line further by moving Brigadier General William MacRae's brigade to the west. After arriving at Sutherland Station on the night of March 29, as ordered, Pickett moved his three brigades under Brigadier Generals George H. Steuart and Montgomery Corse and William R. Terry's Brigade, and Brigadier Generals Matt Ransom's and William Henry Wallace's brigades from Johnson's division, a cavalry division under Major General Fitzhugh Lee and six guns under the command of Colonel William Pegram to Five Forks on March 30. Then he sent Terry's brigade and Corse's