At daylight on the 30th I proceeded to make dispositions under the new conditions imposed by my modified instructions, and directed Merritt to push Devin out as far as the White Oak road to make a reconnoissance to Five Forks, Crook being instructed to send Davies’s brigade to support Devin.  Crook was to hold, with Gregg’s brigade, the Stony Creek crossing of the Boydton plank road, retaining Smith’s near Dinwiddie, for use in any direction required.  On the 29th W. H. F. Lee conformed the march of his cavalry with that of ours, but my holding Stony Creek in this way forced him to make a detour west of Chamberlin’s Run, in order to get in communication with his friends at Five Forks.

The rain that had been falling all night gave no sign of stopping, but kept pouring down all day long, and the swamps and quicksands mired the horses, whether they marched in the roads or across the adjacent fields.  Undismayed, nevertheless, each column set out for its appointed duty, but shortly after the troops began to move I received from General Grant this despatch, which put a new phase on matters: 

“Headquarters armies of the united states, “Gravelly Run, March 30, 1865.

“Major-general Sheridan: 

“The heavy rain of to-day will make it impossible for us to do much until it dries up a little, or we get roads around our rear repaired.  You may, therefore, leave what cavalry you deem necessary to protect the left, and hold such positions as you deem necessary for that purpose, and send the remainder back to Humphrey’s Station where they can get hay and grain.  Fifty wagons loaded with forage will be sent to you in the morning.  Send an officer back to direct the wagons back to where you want them.  Report to me the cavalry you will leave back, and the position you will occupy.  Could not your cavalry go back by the way of Stony Creek depot and destroy or capture the store of supplies there?

“U.  S. Grant, Lieut.-General.”

When I had read and pondered this, I determined to ride over to General Grant’s headquarters on Gravelly Run, and get a clear idea of what it was proposed to do, for it seemed to me that a suspension of operations would be a serious mistake.  Mounting a powerful gray pacing horse called Breckenridge (from its capture from one of Breckenridge’s staff-officers at Missionary Ridge), and that I knew would carry me through the mud, I set out accompanied by my Assistant Adjutant-General, Colonel Frederick C. Newhall, and an escort of about ten or fifteen men.  At first we rode north up the Boydton plank-road, and coming upon our infantry pickets from a direction where the enemy was expected to appear, they began to fire upon us, but seeing from our actions that we were friends, they ceased, and permitted us to pass the outposts.  We then struggled on in a northeasterly direction across-country, till we struck the Vaughn road.