Back on the Vaughan Road, Mott’s 3rd Division followed Egan across Hatcher’s Run. Hancock then turned his column to the west, marching along a narrow track past Dabney’s Mill toward the Boydton Plank Road. The II Corps commander was beginning to feel uneasy because he did not hear firing from Parke’s anticipated attack against the Confederate line. Guns sounded only from Hancock’s left, where Gregg had encountered Hampton. Hancock hoped that he might reach the Plank Road in time to strike the Confederate cavalry, but at Hancock’s approach, Hampton pulled his men from the Quaker Road to take up a new blocking position on the White Oak Road, the Union general’s intended route. Gregg was relieved to find the Quaker Road in front of him suddenly clear. He crossed Gravelly Run and burned the bridge to slow any pursuit by Fitzhugh Lee.

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When Egan’s division emerged about 10:30 into the open fields along the Boydton Plank Road, his skirmishers were quickly halted by Confederate cannon and rifle fire. A Federal artillery battery soon silenced the enemy guns on high ground at the Burgess Tavern, near the junction of the White Oak and Boydton Plank roads. Under Hancock’s direction, Egan deployed two of his brigades into a line facing north. Lieutenant Colonel Horace P. Rugg’s 1st Brigade was west of the Plank Road, while Colonel James M. Willett’s 2nd Brigade was to the east. Egan then brought up Smyth’s 3rd Brigade to support Willett, who was ordered to charge and capture the hill at Burgess Tavern.

Willett advanced his brigade of New York regiments in skirmish line formation, driving the enemy through a belt of timber and across a ravine. Re-forming his line quickly on the far side of the ravine, Willett charged the high ground beyond and captured the Confederate position along a barricade on the Boydton Plank Road. Egan wryly noted, ‘This barricade was erected at a toll-gate, but the Virginia highway regulations were not observed.’

Willett halted, formed a battle line, and threw up breastworks as protection against a possible counterattack. Egan quickly moved his other two brigades to join Willett’s line on either flank. Rugg’s regiments straddled the White Oak Road–which Hancock still intended to march west along to cross Hatcher’s Run two miles upstream–while Smyth faced north toward the Boydton Plank Road bridge. The Plank Road passed over Hatcher’s Run near the Burgess Mill, where a dam backed up the stream to make a pond.

By now, Gregg’s cavalry had joined Hancock from the south. Hancock confidently began preparations to continue his advance. Mott’s division was started toward the White Oak Road, while Colonel Michael Kerwin’s cavalry brigade was sent to take over Egan’s position so that the 2nd Division could follow Mott.

Before the infantry was able to move out, however, a message from Meade arrived at about 1 p.m. Hancock was to halt on the Plank Road. Shortly afterward, Meade and Grant arrived on the field. Meade directed Hancock to extend his right to the east in an effort to make contact with Crawford’s division, which was slowly making its way northwest through the thick woods along Hatcher’s Run.

The Confederate dismounted cavalry and cannons that Willett had pushed off the high ground at the Burgess Tavern had withdrawn several hundred yards toward the mill dam, but had not crossed the run. From their new position they continued to fire on Egan’s men. Smyth’s brigade was ordered to attack the new Rebel position. As they started their advance, Captain Timothy J. Burke of the 164th New York–one of the three regiments deprived of the right to carry battleflags after Reams’ Station–mistakenly thought that the entire division was moving forward. He led 10 New York men along the left of Smyth’s line as it swept over the open field.

A Confederate bullet sliced through the knapsack of Color Sergeant John Hirst, 14th Connecticut, and the sudden unbalanced weight of the pack nearly threw him to the ground. His comrades thought Hirst had been hit and reached for his flag. ‘But I was all right,’ he wrote his family after the battle, ‘and if they don’t get nearer than that I shall remain so.’

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