general assault When the Battle of Five Forks ended, Colonel Horace Porter, General Grant's aide and observer at the battle, started back for Grant's headquarters at about 7:30 p.m. He excitedly reported the victory and told Grant that over 5,000 prisoners were taken. The victory at Five Forks opened the road to the South Side Railroad for the Union force. As soon as Grant learned of the victory, at about 8:00 p.m., he ordered Major General Meade to have Major Generals Humphreys and Parke ready to push against the Confederate lines to keep the Confederates from escaping from Petersburg and converging on Sheridan's force. Grant told the officers at his headquarters that he had ordered a general assault along the lines. Meade asked Grant for clarification because Grant previously had ordered a 4:00 a.m. attack all along the line. Grant said both Humphreys and Parke should feel for a chance to push on that night, that Humphreys should send skirmishers forward and attack if the Confederates were leaving their positions. If the Confederates held their line, Grant said that Humphreys should send Miles's division down White Oak Road to reinforce Sheridan. Miles's and Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Gershom Mott's divisions from Humphreys corps attacked at once but could not do more than drive in the Confederate pickets as Confederate artillery opened up on them. Miles division was sent to Sheridan just before midnight but Mott's and Brigadier General William Hays's divisions continued probing the Confederate line. Grant also directed that Major Generals Horatio Wright, John Parke and Edward Ord (John Gibbon) begin an artillery barrage on the Confederate lines. The division commanders and Ord reported to Grant that their men could not see the defenses well enough to attack that night. Grant sends Miles's division to Sheridan; Sheridan's plan On the night of April 1, two divisions of the Union V Corps camped across White Oak Road near Gravelly Run Church while the third division camped near Ford's Road. Sheridan's cavalry divisions camped at the Gilliam Farm near Five Forks while Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie's cavalrymen, detached from the Army of the James for service with Sheridan, settled in near the Ford's Road crossing of Hatcher's Run. Nelson A. Miles's division of Andrew Humphrey's II Corps joined Sheridan later that night. Grant sent a message to Sheridan late on April 1 that he was sending Miles's division to him