on the morning of march 31, general lee inspected his white oak road line and learned that the union left flank held by ayres's division was "in the air" and that there was a wide gap between the union infantry and sheridan's nearest cavalry units near dinwiddie court house. he ordered brigadier generals mcgowan and hunton to bring their brigades to the far right of anderson's position which would bring bushrod johnson's division back to its strength before the transfer of ransom's and wallace's brigades to pickett. lee ordered johnson to attack the exposed union line. along with mcgowan's and hunton's brigades, johnson had his own brigades under the command of brigadier general henry a. wise and colonel martin l. stansel in lieu of brigadier general young marshall moody who was ill. the four confederate brigades from three divisions, which were in turn from three different corps, worked well together in the actions on march 31.