Boydton Plank Road VA079

supportedunresolved Humphreys says the Union information was that the Confederate works reached Hatcher's Run in an incomplete state, that the dark, rainy morning delayed the columns so the enemy was not surprised, and that the army was ignorant of the topography.

Attributed knowledge in a participant history.

supportedunresolved Humphreys says the troops carried four days' rations with trains sent to City Point and pack animals instead of wagons, that reserve ammunition could not reach Hancock by morning, which decided his withdrawal, and that 250 wounded were left for want of ambulances.

Statements from an interested participant history; no return inspected.

supportedunresolved Humphreys quotes Grant's order to gain and hold the South Side Railroad and fortify back to the present left; NPS calls the Boydton Plank Road a major campaign objective.

Stated aims from a history and a summary.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen and live results read Confederate victory; NPS says the Confederates kept the Boydton Plank Road for the winter. Humphreys says Mahone was driven from the field in confusion but Hancock was ordered to withdraw that night; Lee relays Hill's report that the enemy retired during the night leaving his wounded and more than 250 dead.

Retain the original result and engagement interval; later movements and campaign contribution are different measures. No new probabilities or individual causal credit. Tactical repulse of Mahone and the Union withdrawal are both retained.

disputedpost_outcome The frozen casualty text reads 3,058 (1,758 US; 1,300 CS), matching the live field. Humphreys gives Hancock's loss as 857 killed and wounded and 625 missing, Warren's as 211 killed and wounded and 48 missing, the Adjutant General's table as 143 killed, 653 wounded and 488 missing, and judges the Confederate losses at least equal; Lee reports Mahone's 400 prisoners and Hill's total of 700.

Original casualty returns were not inspected; preserve totals, categories, cutoffs and differences. No canonical reconciliation or casualty-based opening count; related actions must not be added without resolving population overlap. Humphreys' and the table's Union figures differ; Lee's prisoner totals and the Union missing overlap. The Adjutant General's figures end Humphreys' Boydton footnote, continued on p.304 inside the selected Fair Oaks passage; he says the table's errors are in the numbers of wounded and its killed and missing are undoubtedly correct.

supportedunresolved Humphreys says he himself directed Warren to cross part of his corps at nine o'clock, that Grant and Meade left the field directing Hancock to hold until morning, and that Egan turned on Mahone before orders reached him; Lee's dispatches relay Hill's report of Heth's attack and of Mahone in front with Hampton in the rear. The frozen commanders are Major General Heth (CS) and Major General Hancock (US); the live page matches.

Direction attributed as stated; Humphreys is a participant describing his own orders. No listed commander receives automatic sole credit.

unknownunresolved

No inspected return establishes matched personnel at a common opening boundary. The frozen side-specific numerical strength bounds are blank (missing_numeric_strength). No figure in this pass is adopted as a simultaneous opening force.

disputedunresolved The frozen force text reads 'Corps (35,000 total)' and the live description 'more than 30,000 men'. Humphreys says the plan was to move 30,000 to 35,000 effective infantry with Gregg's cavalry of about 3,000, that Hancock took about 10,000 and Parke and Warren about 11,000 each after leaving 1,500 and 2,500 in their works, and that the October 20 return gave Hill's three divisions 13,638 and Hampton's cavalry 5,453; he relays Warren's statement that 3,913 of his men had never fired a musket.

Planned and approximate effective strengths and a Confederate return of October 20, of different populations. None is adopted as a matched opening strength; live zeros are not measured absence.

supportedinherited Humphreys says Hatcher's Run had been dammed and slashed, that a thicket forest over a mile deep separated Crawford from the plank road, that two corps had only a narrow cart track, and that Warren heard no sound of Hancock's fight through the dense wood.

The run, forest and tracks predate the operation; the dams and slashing were Confederate works. No map verification.