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.