which were built along with the Boydton Plank Road Line in Fall 1864. The forts were northwest of the Boydton Plank Road, about in front of the Dimmock Line. Fort Whitworth (also known at various times as Fort Baldwin, Fort Anderson, and Fort Alexander) was to the north of Fort Gregg. Although Fort Whitworth was larger, it was deteriorated in part due to the removal of wood for firewood by some of the same Confederate troops now sent to defend it who were camped nearby during the winter. The two forts were connected only by an uncompleted trench at the rear. After Wilcox had directed the short-lived reoccupation of a small sector of Confederate line near Fort Gregg, four regiments of 400 veterans of Brigadier General Nathaniel Harris's Mississippi Brigade arrived and advanced beyond the two forts to meet the approaching XXIV Corps. Harris's brigade, with some of Longstreet's troops from the Richmond defenses following closely behind, was sent to reinforce Lane's and Thomas's remaining troops in an effort by the Confederates to hold the Dimmock Line from the Appomattox River to Battery No. 45. Upon arriving near the forts at the same time as Nathaniel Harris's brigade arrived, XXIV Corps commander John Gibbon deployed Brigadier General Robert S. Foster's division on the right and units of Brigadier General John W. Turner's division behind on a small ridge from the forts. Thomas T. Harris's brigade of Turner's division deployed on the left to confront Fort Whitworth. Nathaniel Harris later commented that his disposition of men on the undulating ground must have misled the Union commanders about the size of his force because they slowly and carefully formed two lines of battle before advancing. Nonetheless, the lead brigade of Brigadier General Robert S. Foster's division under Colonel (Brevet Brigadier General) Thomas O. Osborn immediately charged when they formed on the scene, causing Nathaniel Harris's and the North Carolina troops in the reoccupied area along Church Road to pull back toward the forts without offering any serious opposition. To buy time for reinforcements from Major General Charles W. Field's division of Longstreet's corps to arrive and take positions on the Dimmock Line, Nathaniel Harris's brigade along with detachments from Thomas's and Lane's brigades made a stand at Forts Gregg and Whitworth while other Confederate units pulled back to or arrived at the main works. Two hundred men of the 12th Mississippi Infantry