After the Battle of Sailor's Creek, Grant decided that he had to guard against a Confederate effort to escape to Danville by moving to the south toward Keysville, Virginia. He sent Sheridan's (Merritt's), Crook's and Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie's cavalry, followed by Griffin's V Corps, Gibbon's XXIV Corps and two brigades of William Birney's 2nd Division of XXV Corps, also under Gibbon, to Prince Edward Court House, Virginia (present day Worsham, Virginia). Sheridan ordered Merritt's cavalry (Custer's and Devin's divisions) to move to Buffalo Creek and Spring Creek, south of Farmville and from Prospect Station where they went into bivouac for the night. Mackenzie's force was consolidated with Crook's division which was camped at Prospect Station.