On April 1, 1865, Union forces under General Philip Sheridan defeated Confederate troops at Five Forks, Virginia, in the last major battle of the Petersburg Campaign. The Union victory severed Lee's last supply line and forced the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. The battle marked the beginning of the end for the Army of Northern Virginia and set the stage for Lee's surrender at Appomattox.

The Battle of Five Forks inspired poems that celebrated the Union victory and reflected on the war's impending end. The battle's significance as the final major engagement of the war made it a subject of historical poetry in the years following the conflict. Poems about the battle often emphasized the themes of sacrifice, victory, and the cost of war, contributing to the broader literary memory of the Civil War.