The Union forces were also nearly in position to attack the two remaining Confederate railroad connections with Petersburg and Richmond, if they could take Five Forks. Encouraged by the Confederate failure to press their attack at Lewis's Farm and their withdrawal to their White Oak Road Line, Grant decided to expand Sheridan's mission to a major offensive rather than just a possible battle or a railroad raid and forced extension of the Confederate line. Movements and actions after Lewis's Farm Confederate movements Following the Battle of Lewis's Farm, in the heavy rain on the night of March 29, Lee sent Brigadier General Samuel McGowan's brigade to bolster Anderson's defense of the end of the line. Brigadier General William MacRae's brigade also was moved to the west of Burgess Mill. Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox's three other brigades had to spread out to cover the vacated defenses. McGowan and MacRae did not have enough men to enable Johnson to extend his line to Five Forks. On March 30, a day of steady torrential rain, the Union forces consolidated their positions while Lee completed his orders for Major General George Pickett together with cavalry help from Major General Fitzhugh Lee to form a mobile task force to move from the end of the Confederate line near Hatcher's Run to Five Forks. With the gap between the end of the Confederate White Oak Road Line southwest of Petersburg and Pickett's force at Five Forks in mind, on March 30, Lee made additional deployments to strengthen his right flank. Lee would have moved men from Lieutenant General James Longstreet's force north of the James River but largely due to demonstrations and deceptions by the remaining divisions of Major General Godfrey Weitzel's XXV Corps, Longstreet thought that he still confronted Ord's entire Army of the James almost three days after Ord had gone with two divisions of the XXIV Corps, a division of the XXV Corps and Mackenzie's cavalry to the Union lines south of Petersburg. Lee moved Brigadier General Alfred M. Scales's brigade, temporarily commanded by Colonel Joseph H. Hyman, from Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox's division's left to trenches near the junction of the White Oak Road and the Boydton Plank Road. Another of Wilcox's brigades, that of Brigadier General Young Marshall Moody under the temporary command of Colonel Martin L. Stansel, was moved to the rifle pits south of Burgess Mill. MacRae's