of Gravelly Run which was to feature in the following day's battle. Two other brigades did not cross but began to entrench. Ayres saw only empty space to the northeast and failed to see heavy fortifications near the intersection of White Oak Road and Claiborne Road which angled sharply back to Hatcher's Run directly to his north. As dark approached, Ayres had a number of outposts prepared to cover his position. Union casualties for the March 30 actions at the White Oak Line were 1 killed, 7 wounded and 15 missing; the number of Confederate casualties is unknown. Prelude to March 31, 1865 battles The fighting, maneuvering and skirmishing at Lewis's Farm on March 29, 1865 and in the vicinity of that farm along the White Oak Road Line on March 30, 1865 set the stage for the Battle of White Oak Road and the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House on March 31, 1865. Footnotes Notes References Bearss, Edwin C., with Bryce A. Suderow. The Petersburg Campaign. Vol. 2, The Western Front Battles, September 1864 – April 1865. El Dorado Hills, CA: Savas Beatie, 2014. . Beringer, Richard E., Herman Hattaway, Archer Jones, and William N. Still, Jr. Why the South Lost the Civil War. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1986. . Calkins, Chris. The Appomattox Campaign, March 29 – April 9, 1865. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Books, 1997. . Chamberlain, Joshua L. The Passing of Armies: An Account of the Final Campaign of the Army of the Potomac. New York: Bantam Books, 1993. . First published New York and London, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1915. Foote, Shelby. The Civil War: A Narrative. Vol. 3, Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1974. . Greene, A. Wilson. The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2008. . Hattaway, Herman, and Archer Jones. How the North Won: A Military History of the Civil War. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1983. . Hess, Earl J. In the Trenches at Petersburg: Field Fortifications & Confederate Defeat. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009. . Kennedy, Frances H., ed., The Civil War Battlefield Guide, 2nd ed., Houghton Mifflin Co., 1998, . Longacre, Edward G. The Cavalry at Appomattox: A Tactical Study of Mounted Operations During the Civil War's Climactic Campaign, March 27 – April 9, 1865. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2003. . Salmon, John