When Parke did not receive a favorable reply to his request for cancellation of the assault, he prepared to send 18 regiments forward. Brigadier General Robert B. Potter's division was to the west of the Jerusalem Plank Road. Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) John F. Hartranft's division was to the east on the right of Fort Sedgwick. Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Orlando B. Willcox sent three regiments from his division to cover Hartranft's right flank with the rest of his regiments in reserve but demonstrating between the Crater and the Appomattox River. Potter and Hartranft both put axmen in front of their forces to dismantle obstructions.