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Campaign For Petersburg-Richard Wayne Lykes · Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons

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  Speaker 1: Parts one, two, and three of Campaign for Petersburg. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by David Wales. Campaign for Petersburg
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  Speaker 1: by Richard Wayne Likes Part one prolog. By June eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty four, when the Siege of Petersburg began, the Civil
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  Speaker 1: War had lain heavily on both the north and the
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  Speaker 1: South for more than three years. Most of the fighting
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  Speaker 1: in the East during this period had taken place on
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  Speaker 1: the rolling Virginia countryside between the opposing capitals of Washington
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  Speaker 1: and Richmond, only one hundred and ten miles apart, and
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  Speaker 1: all of it had failed to end the war and
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  Speaker 1: bring peace to the land. Various generals had been placed
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  Speaker 1: in command of the Union's Mighty Army of the Potomac
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  Speaker 1: and had faced General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
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  Speaker 1: So far, not one had succeeded in destroying Lee's army
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  Speaker 1: or in capturing Richmond. Perhaps Major General George B. McLellan
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  Speaker 1: had come the closest to success when, in the late
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  Speaker 1: spring and early summer of eighteen sixty two. His northern
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  Speaker 1: troops had threatened the Confederate capital, only to be repulsed
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  Speaker 1: on its outskirts. The other northern commanders who followed McLellan, Pope, Burnside, Hooker,
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  Speaker 1: and Mead were less successful. Lee had met and turned
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  Speaker 1: aside their drives. After thirty six months of bitter conflict,
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  Speaker 1: the war in the East seemed to many observers to
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  Speaker 1: be far from a final settlement. The failure of Union
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  Speaker 1: forces to deliver a decisive blow against the army of
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  Speaker 1: Northern Virginia was a source of growing concern in Washington.
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  Speaker 1: The Confederacy, for its part, was no more successful in
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  Speaker 1: settler the issue. Attempted invasions of the Northern States by
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  Speaker 1: Lea were turned back at Antietam in September eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: two and at Gettysburg in July eighteen sixty three. Farther west,
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  Speaker 1: the picture was brighter for Northern hopes. In the same
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  Speaker 1: month as the Battle of Gettysburg, the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg, Mississippi,
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  Speaker 1: fell into Union hands. A few days later, Port Hudson, Louisiana,
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  Speaker 1: the last remaining stronghold of the Confederacy on the banks
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  Speaker 1: of the Mississippi River surrendered. Later in eighteen sixty three,
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  Speaker 1: the Union capture of Chattanooga, Tennessee threw open the gateway
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  Speaker 1: to Georgia. Strategically, despite the stalemate in Virginia, the beginning
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen sixty four found the Northern armies in a
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  Speaker 1: stronger position than the Confederate military forces. Not only was
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  Speaker 1: there a distinct possibility that the southern states east of
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  Speaker 1: the Misisis Puissippi could be split into two parts, but
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  Speaker 1: the greater resources at the command of the Lincoln administration
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  Speaker 1: were beginning to count more heavily with each passing day.
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  Speaker 1: All that seemed to be needed to end the war
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  Speaker 1: was an able Union commander who could marshal the mighty
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  Speaker 1: resources of his country for a last tremendous blow at
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  Speaker 1: the South. Such a man was found in Major General
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  Speaker 1: Ulysses S. Grant, the victor at Vicksburg, and Missionary Ridge,
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  Speaker 1: who was brought east and on March ninth, eighteen sixty four,
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  Speaker 1: commissioned lieutenant general to be responsible for all the Union armies.
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  Speaker 1: Unlike his predecessor, Henry W. Halleck, Grant decided not to
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  Speaker 1: remain in Washington, but chose instead to accompany the Army
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  Speaker 1: of the Potomac, where he would provide general direction to
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  Speaker 1: the military operations, but leave the execution of them to
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  Speaker 1: that army's commander, Major General George G. Meade, Part iiO
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  Speaker 1: Union Strategy eighteen sixty four. To accomplish the conquest of
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  Speaker 1: the Confederacy, the Northern Plan called for a huge, two
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  Speaker 1: pronged attack. Major General William T. Sherman, in command of
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  Speaker 1: the southern prong, was assigned the task of destroying General
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  Speaker 1: Joseph E. Johnson's Confederate Army of Tennessee, capturing Atlanta, marching
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  Speaker 1: to the sea, and then turning north to effect a
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  Speaker 1: junction with Grant. It was the upper arm of the
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  Speaker 1: movement which was directly concerned with Richmond and Petersburg. This
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  Speaker 1: was composed of two armies, the Army of the Potomac
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  Speaker 1: and the Army of the James. It was the task
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  Speaker 1: of these armies to capture Richmond, crush the Army of
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  Speaker 1: Northern Virginia, and march south towards Sherman. The story of
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  Speaker 1: the Army of the James in the early phase of
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  Speaker 1: the offensive can be briefly told. Major General Benjamin F.
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  Speaker 1: Butler was ordered to advance upon Richmond from the southeast
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  Speaker 1: and threaten communications between the Confederate capital and the Southern States.
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  Speaker 1: With some forty thousand Union troops, the advance was begun.
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  Speaker 1: City Point, located at the junction of the James and
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  Speaker 1: Apromatics rivers and soon to be the supply center for
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  Speaker 1: the attack on Petersburg, was captured on May fourth, eighteen
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  Speaker 1: sixty four. Within two weeks, however, a numerically inferior Confederate
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  Speaker 1: force shut up the Army of the James as if
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  Speaker 1: it had been in a bottle strongly corked in Bermuda hundred,
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  Speaker 1: a loop formed by the winding James and Apromatics rivers.
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  Speaker 1: Here Butler waited, while north of him the Army of
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  Speaker 1: the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia engaged in
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  Speaker 1: a series of bloody battles. The Battle of the Wilderness.
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  Speaker 1: May five to seven, eighteen sixty four, began what proved
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  Speaker 1: to be the start of the final campaign against the
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  Speaker 1: Army of Northern Virginia. Here, Mead's Army of the Potomac,
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  Speaker 1: numbering approximately one hundred eighteen thousand troops, fought the Confederate
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  Speaker 1: defenders of Richmond. Lee had about sixty two thousand men
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  Speaker 1: with him, while an additional thirty thousand under General P. G. T.
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  Speaker 1: Beauregard held the Richmond Petersburg area. The battle resulted in
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  Speaker 1: a fearful loss of men on both sides, although the
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  Speaker 1: armies remained intact. This was followed by a series of
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  Speaker 1: fierce engagements around Spotsylvania Courthouse from May eighth to twenty one,
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  Speaker 1: failing to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia. In these battles,
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  Speaker 1: Grant moved the Army of the Potomac to the east
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  Speaker 1: of Richmond. It was his hope that he would outflank
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  Speaker 1: the Confederate defenders by persistent night marches. Lee was not
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  Speaker 1: to be so easily outguessed, however. After minor battles at
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  Speaker 1: the North Anna River May twenty three and Totopotomoy Creek
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  Speaker 1: May twenty nine, Grant arrived at Cold Harbor, about eight
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  Speaker 1: miles northeast of Richmond, but Lee's army still stood between
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  Speaker 1: him and that city. On June three, two days after
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  Speaker 1: he arrived at Cold Harbor, Grant ordered a direct frontal
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  Speaker 1: assault against the Confederate lines. He was repulsed with heavy
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  Speaker 1: losses about seven thousand men. I have always regretted that
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  Speaker 1: the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made, Grant
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  Speaker 1: would write many years later. By the end of the
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  Speaker 1: first month of Grant's campaign, both sides had suffered heavy casualties,
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  Speaker 1: but the Nor's ability to refill its depleted ranks was
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  Speaker 1: greater than the South. Lee's offensive strength had been sapped
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  Speaker 1: from the Battle of Spotsylvania court House until the end
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  Speaker 1: of the war. Except for counter attacks and the lunge
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  Speaker 1: at Fort Steadman during the Siege of Petersburg, the Army
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  Speaker 1: of Northern Virginia was a defensive weapon. Only after Cold
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  Speaker 1: Harbor Grant decided to turn quickly to the south of
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  Speaker 1: Richmond and isolate the city and the defending troops by
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  Speaker 1: attacking Petersburg and cutting the railroads that supplied them. Lee
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  Speaker 1: knew he could not allow this to happen. We must
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  Speaker 1: destroy this army of Grants before he gets to James River,
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  Speaker 1: he told one of his generals. If he gets there,
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  Speaker 1: it will become a siege, and then it will be
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  Speaker 1: a mere question of time. Part three Strategic Petersburg. According
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  Speaker 1: to the United States Census of eighteen sixty Petersburg was
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  Speaker 1: a city of eighteen thousand, two hundred and sixty six people.
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  Speaker 1: It was situated on the southern bank of the Apromatox River,
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  Speaker 1: about eight miles from city point, where the Apromatics joined
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  Speaker 1: the James, and twenty three miles south of Richmond. As
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  Speaker 1: the war progressed and the territory to the north and
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  Speaker 1: east was shut off, Richmond became increasingly dependent on Petersburg
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  Speaker 1: for supplies. Through it passed a constant stream of war
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  Speaker 1: materials and necessities of life from the South to sustain
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  Speaker 1: the straining war effort. In short, Petersburg was a road
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  Speaker 1: and rail center of vital importance to the Confederacy, and
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  Speaker 1: its capture would almost certainly lead to the abandonment of Richmond.
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  Speaker 1: The transportation vehicles of the eighteen sixties did not require
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  Speaker 1: the wide, straight highways of the present. However, several good
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  Speaker 1: roads came into the city from the east, south, and west,
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  Speaker 1: where they joined with the Richmond Turnpike. Along these roads
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  Speaker 1: passed supply wagons, couriers, and on occasion, troops on their
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  Speaker 1: way to repel the foe. Several were built of logs
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  Speaker 1: laid across the road to form a hard surface. Because
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  Speaker 1: of this, they were called plank roads. Two of the
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  Speaker 1: most important arteries of traffic into Petersburg were the Jerusalem
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  Speaker 1: plank Road, connecting Petersburg with Jerusalem now Cortland, Virginia, and
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  Speaker 1: the Boyden plank Road, which led south through Dinwiddie Courthouse.
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  Speaker 1: Among others of importance were the City Point, Prince George Courthouse,
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  Speaker 1: Baxter Halifax, Jordan Point, Squirrel Level, and Cox Roads. It
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  Speaker 1: was the railroads, more than the highways, however, which gave
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  Speaker 1: to Petersburg a significance out of all proportion to its size.
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  Speaker 1: Tracks radiated from the city in all directions. The Richmond
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  Speaker 1: and Petersburg Railroad left the city to the north, The
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  Speaker 1: South Side Railroad ran west to Lynchburg. The Petersburg and
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  Speaker 1: Weldon Railroad led south to North Carore Carolina. The Norfolk
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  Speaker 1: and Petersburg Railroad passed through a ravine east of the
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  Speaker 1: city before turning southeast toward Norfolk, and the Petersburg and
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  Speaker 1: City Point Railroad struck out for the hamlet of City Point,
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  Speaker 1: situated at the junction of the James and Aprimattox rivers,
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  Speaker 1: about eight miles away. Because of its proximity Petersburg became
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  Speaker 1: a part of the transportation system of the Confederate capital,
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  Speaker 1: serving as a major point of transfer to the larger
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  Speaker 1: metropolis for products and materials from the vast regions to
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  Speaker 1: the south and southwest. By June eighteen sixty four, all
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  Speaker 1: but one railroad from the south and west into Richmond,
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  Speaker 1: the Richmond and Danville Railroad, passed through Petersburg. As other
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  Speaker 1: lines of supply were cut off or threatened, the dependence
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  Speaker 1: of Richmond upon Petersburg increased and made the security of
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  Speaker 1: that city a matter of vital concern. In the spring
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  Speaker 1: of eighteen teen sixty two, McClellan's Peninsular campaign had threatened
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  Speaker 1: Richmond from the east and southeast, making that city's defenders
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  Speaker 1: acutely aware of the need for a system of fortifications
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  Speaker 1: around Petersburg. In August a defense line was begun, and
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  Speaker 1: work continued until its completion about a year later. Captain
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  Speaker 1: Charles H. Demmock, a Northerner by birth, was in charge
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  Speaker 1: of it under the direction of the Engineer Bureau Confederate
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  Speaker 1: States Army, and the lines so constructed became unofficially known
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  Speaker 1: as the Demic Line. When finished, the chain of breastworks
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  Speaker 1: and artillery emplacements around Petersburg was ten miles long, beginning
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  Speaker 1: and ending on the Apromatos River and protecting all but
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  Speaker 1: the northern approaches to the city. The fifty five artillery
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  Speaker 1: batteries were consecutively numbered from east to west. Although natural
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  Speaker 1: terrain features were utilized whenever possible, some glaring weaknesses existed,
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  Speaker 1: such as the deep ravine between batteries seven and eight,
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  Speaker 1: which could provide a means of penetration by an attacking force.
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  Speaker 1: The very length and size of the fortifications proved to
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  Speaker 1: be a disadvantage. It meant that a larger number of
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  Speaker 1: troops would be necessary to defend a line than General Beauregard,
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  Speaker 1: charged with this heavy responsibility, had present for duty. Colonel
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  Speaker 1: Alfred Roman, an aide de camp to Beauregard, estimated that
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  Speaker 1: the long, dimic line would require more than ten times
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  Speaker 1: as many men to defend it as were available. On
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  Speaker 1: several occasions, raids were made on the railroads south and
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  Speaker 1: west of Petersburg. The most serious of these occurred on
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  Speaker 1: June ninth, eighteen sixty four, when three thousand infantry and
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  Speaker 1: thirteen hundred cavalry appeared in force along the eastern and
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  Speaker 1: southeast eastern sector of the demic line. The infantry contented
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  Speaker 1: itself with a menacing demonstration, but the cavalry attacked up
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  Speaker 1: the Jerusalem Plank Road. After breaking through the defenses, the
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  Speaker 1: horse soldiers were checked by regular Southern Army units, assisted
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  Speaker 1: by a hastily summoned home guard of old men and youths.
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  Speaker 1: The damage done by such raids was quickly patched up,
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  Speaker 1: but they were a constant nuisance to the city's transportation lines.
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  Speaker 1: To shut off permanently the supplies that streamed along the railroads,
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  Speaker 1: the Union forces would have to take permanent physical possession
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  Speaker 1: of them. And of parts one, two and three, Parts
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  Speaker 1: four and five of a Campaign for Petersburg by Richard
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  Speaker 1: Wayne Likes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Four Battle of Petersburg. After the Battle of Cold Harbour
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  Speaker 1: on June three, Grant had abandoned for a time at
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  Speaker 1: least his plan to capture Richmond by direct assault. With
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  Speaker 1: characteristic zeal, he had ordered Meade to move the Army
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  Speaker 1: of the Potomac across the James River and to invest
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  Speaker 1: the more southerly city. On June fourteenth, Grant and Butler
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  Speaker 1: conferred at Bermuda hundred. At that time orders were given
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  Speaker 1: for the attack on Petersburg. The first of the northern
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  Speaker 1: forces to arrive on the scene of battle was the
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  Speaker 1: eighteenth Corps of the Army of the James which had
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  Speaker 1: fought at Cold Harbour. Early in the morning of June fifteen.
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  Speaker 1: These troops, commanded by Major General W. F. Balby Smith,
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  Speaker 1: crossed from Bermuda hundred to the south side of the
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  Speaker 1: Apromatics by means of a pontoon bridge at Broadway Landing.
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  Speaker 1: Eighteen thousand Union soldiers were on their way to face
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  Speaker 1: less than four thousand under Beauregard. Throughout the day, they
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  Speaker 1: approached the city and assembled for the attack. There was
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  Speaker 1: skirmishing throughout the afternoon as the Federals drove in the
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  Speaker 1: Confederate pickets, and shortly after seven p m. On June fifteenth,
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  Speaker 1: the eighteenth Corps launched a fierce attack on the Demic line.
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  Speaker 1: Among the first points to fall was Battery five, one
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  Speaker 1: of the strongest of the Confederate positions. Within a few hours,
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  Speaker 1: Beauregard had lost not only Battery five, but all the
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  Speaker 1: line for more than a mile south. The defenders withdrew
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  Speaker 1: and threw up a hasty entrenchment behind Harrison's Creek, well
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  Speaker 1: to the rear of the captured section of the line.
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  Speaker 1: While the Confederate retreat was taking place, the Union Second Corps,
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  Speaker 1: commanded by Major General Winfield as Hancock, arrived to reinforce
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  Speaker 1: the Federal columns. The appearance on the field of the
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  Speaker 1: Second Corps was an ominous sign for the Confederates. While
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  Speaker 1: the initial attacks were taking place on June fifteen, the
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  Speaker 1: Army of the Potomac had been busily engaged in crossing
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  Speaker 1: the James River farther to the east. The number of
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  Speaker 1: Union troops south of the river was increasing hourly, until
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  Speaker 1: by midnight of June sixteen, at least seventy thousand had crossed.
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  Speaker 1: Darkness ended the fighting on June fifteen, but early the
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  Speaker 1: next day the attacks were renewed. More of the defense
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  Speaker 1: line south of the portion captured the previous day now
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  Speaker 1: gave way. In response to repeated entreaties from Beauregard throughout
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  Speaker 1: June fifteen and sixteen, Lee ordered more divisions to the
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  Speaker 1: support of Petersburg, necessitating the draining of precious reserves from
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  Speaker 1: the Richmond lines. By dawn of that second day, Beauregard
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  Speaker 1: could muster about fourteen thousand men to face the enemy. Thus,
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  Speaker 1: the center of attention rapidly shifted from Richmond to Petersburg,
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  Speaker 1: which had so recently seemed of but secondary importance. The
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  Speaker 1: third day of the battle was practically a repetition of
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  Speaker 1: that of the preceding day. Again, the northern forces attacked
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  Speaker 1: the Confederate troops, concentrating their efforts to the south of
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  Speaker 1: the positions captured earlier. Again, the Confederates were forced to
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  Speaker 1: draw back. A decisive breakthrough of the opposing line was
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  Speaker 1: now anticipated by the assaulting forces. About twelve thirty a
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  Speaker 1: m June eighteen, Beauregard ordered his troops to begin a
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  Speaker 1: withdrawal to new positions about a mile closer to the city.
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  Speaker 1: Throughout the early morning hours of that day, Beauregard had
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  Speaker 1: his men busily engaged in the construction of this defense line.
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  Speaker 1: Colonel Roman later recalled that without a moment's rest, the
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  Speaker 1: digging of the trenches was begun with such utensils as
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  Speaker 1: had been hastily collected at Petersburg, many of the men
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  Speaker 1: using their bayonets, their knives, and even their ten cans
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  Speaker 1: to assist in the rapid execution of the work, a
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  Speaker 1: general assault by the Union forces was ordered for four
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  Speaker 1: a m. On June eighteen. When the attack began, it
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  Speaker 1: was soon discovered that the ranks of the enemy had
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  Speaker 1: not been broken, nor had the city fallen into Northern hands.
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  Speaker 1: The area where the left bank of the demic line
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  Speaker 1: anchored on the Apromatics was empty except for a thin
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  Speaker 1: line of skirmishers who were gradually forced back. The Northern
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  Speaker 1: troops came on, crossing the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad west
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  Speaker 1: of where the defenders had constructed their new line, and
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  Speaker 1: continuing on until they were brought face to face with
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  Speaker 1: the muzzles of Confederate guns. Meanwhile, elements of Lee's command
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  Speaker 1: continued pouring in to aid their comrades, and Lee came
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  Speaker 1: down from his temporary headquarters near Chester, Virginia to personally
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  Speaker 1: direct the operations. Throughout that June Saturday, brisk action occurred
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  Speaker 1: on the new Petersburg front. The major Union drive, involving
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  Speaker 1: elements of five Corps, came about four p m. Artillery
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  Speaker 1: hammered the Confederate's infantry charge, only to be hurled back.
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  Speaker 1: During the course of one of these futile drives. The
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  Speaker 1: first main heavy artillery reportedly suffered the most severe losses
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  Speaker 1: of any regiment in a single engagement of the entire war.
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  Speaker 1: This unit, eight hundred and fifty strong, charged from the
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  Speaker 1: concealment of the Prince George Courthouse Road, north of where
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  Speaker 1: Fort Steadman was soon to stand. Met by a heavy
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  Speaker 1: cross fire, it withdrew in less than one half hour,
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  Speaker 1: with six hundred and thirty two casualties. As on the
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  Speaker 1: previous days, fighting ended with the coming of darkness. Grant's
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  Speaker 1: attempt to capture Petersburg had failed, with the loss of
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  Speaker 1: ten thousand men, but as effort could not be considered
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  Speaker 1: entirely wasted. Two of the railroads leading into the city
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  Speaker 1: had been cut and several roads were in Union hands.
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  Speaker 1: Behind the northern troops was City Point, which Grant speedily
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  Speaker 1: converted into a huge supply base. The major result of
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  Speaker 1: the opening four days of combat, however, was the failure
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  Speaker 1: of the Federal forces to break the Confederate defense line.
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  Speaker 1: First Beaureguard and then Lee had held against heavy odds.
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  Speaker 1: They had been pushed back closer to their base, but
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  Speaker 1: they had held. Possibly if Smith had advanced his eighteenth
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  Speaker 1: Corps farther into the defenses in the opening night, or
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  Speaker 1: if Hancock's second corps had arrived earlier, Petersburg would have
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  Speaker 1: fallen on June fifteen or sixteen. But these had not happened,
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  Speaker 1: and now forty seven thousand to fifty one thousand Confederates
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  Speaker 1: would settle down to defend the city against one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eleven thousand to one hundred and thirteen ten thousand
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  Speaker 1: Union besiegers. The defenses of Richmond now ran from White
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  Speaker 1: Oak Swamp east of that city south to Jerusalem Plank Road,
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  Speaker 1: twenty six miles away. The fate of the Army of
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  Speaker 1: Northern Virginia of the Confederate capital itself would depend upon
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  Speaker 1: the outcome of the Drive against Petersburg, Part five, First
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  Speaker 1: Union attempt to encircle Petersburg. The Union army, having failed
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  Speaker 1: in its initial attack on Petersburg, was now committed to
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  Speaker 1: doing something further to effect its capture. From June nineteenth
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  Speaker 1: to July nine, the Union forces were engaged in three
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  Speaker 1: kinds of activity. First, elements of the army were set
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  Speaker 1: to work consolidating the positions captured in the four day
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  Speaker 1: battle and constructing the device as needed for siege operations. Second,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: jabbing cavotry thrusts were made at the important supply routes
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: into Petersburg, and Third, they reconnoitered the Confederate defenses to
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: determine a plan which would force Lee out of his lines.
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: A threatening movement toward the Weldon Railroad was promptly undertaken
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: by the Northern troops. Three days after the failure to
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: capture the city, two corps, the second and sixth, began
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: to push to the southwest of Grant's flank on the
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: Jerusalem Plank Road. The following day, June twenty second, Confederate divisions,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: led by Generals Cadmus M. Wilcox and William Mahoney, advanced
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: from the defense line south of Petersburg and rolled by
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the Federals, capturing seventeen hundred prisoners, four cannons, and eight
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: stands of colors. The next morning saw the resumption of
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the advance toward the Weldon Railroad. A Union patrol succeeded
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: in reaching the tracks on the twenty third and promptly
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: started the work of destruction. Alarmed by the threat to
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: this import Horton's supply line, the Confederates launched a sharp
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: attack that forced the withdrawal of the Union forces from
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: the vicinity of the railroad. However, the Union lines confronting
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: Petersburg had been extended across the Jerusalem Plank Road, thus
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: cutting off its use to the city in itself. The
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road on June twenty two, twenty
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: four was not too important militarily. The North could quickly
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: replace the loss of twenty three hundred men. The Weldon Railroad,
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: although its days were numbered, was still able to deliver
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: supplies to Petersburg, But as an indication of Grant's tactic,
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: it pointed the course of the campaign ahead. It marked
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: the first of several attempts to encircle Petersburg, and the
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: others to follow would not all be as disappointing to
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: Northern hopes, and these repeated drives to the west lay
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: the essence of the basic plan to capture Petersburg. On
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: July x nine, the plan of operation, decided upon by
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the Union High Command, was revealed in an order from
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: Meats Headquarters, giving detailed instructions for the building of fortifications
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: and the development of siege tactics. It thus became apparent
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: that the Union plan was to reduce Petersburg by a
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: process of attrition, a process that was to last for
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: nine months. There were still those in the attacking forces, however,
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: who felt that with a little imagination, the city could
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: be taken by direct assault. While most of the troops
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: were digging siege lines, another smaller group had already begun
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: work on a unique plan which would, if successful, make
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: further encirclement unnecessary. End of parts four and five, Parts
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: six and seven of a Campaign for Petersburg by Richard
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: Wayne Likes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: Part six, Battle of the Crater. At several places east
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: of the city, the opposing lines were extremely close together.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: One of these locations was in front of Pegrams, sometimes
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: called Eliot's Salent, a Confederate strong point near Old Blandford Church. Here,
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: the Confederate position on Cemetery Hill and the Union picket
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: line were less than four hundred feet apart. Because of
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: the proximity of the Union line, pegram Salent was well fortified.
• 26:39
  Speaker 1: Behind earthen embankments was a battery of four guns and
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: two veteran South Carolina infantry units were stationed on either side.
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: Behind these were other defensive works before them. The ground
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: sloped gently downward toward the Union advance line. This forward
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: Union line was built on the crest of a ravine
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: which which had been crossed on June eighteenth. Through this
• 27:03
  Speaker 1: ravine and between the sentry line and the main line
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: lay the roadbed of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad. The
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: front of this sector was manned by Major General Ambrose E.
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: Burnside's ninth Corps. Among the many units which composed this
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: corps was the forty eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: A large proportion of this regiment was made up of
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: one time coal miners, and it apparently occurred to one
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: or more of them that pegram seilent would provide an
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: excellent place to use their civilian nohow. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants,
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: the commanding officer of the forty eighth, and a mining
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: engineer by profession, overheard one of the enlisted men mutter,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: we could blow that damned fort out of existence if
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: we could run a mine shaft under it. From this
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: and similar remarks came the germ of the idea for
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: a union mine. The forty eighth Regiment proposed to dig
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: a long gallery from the bottom of the ravine behind
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: their picket line to a point beneath the Confederate battery
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: at pegram Salin, blow up the position by powder placed
• 28:11
  Speaker 1: in the end of the tunnel, and then send a
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: strong body of troops through the gap created in the
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: enemy's line by the explosion. They saw as the reward
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: for their effort, the capitulation of Petersburg and perhaps the
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: end of the war. After obtaining the permission of Burnside
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: and Grant, Pleasants and his men commenced digging their mine
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: shaft on June twenty five. The lack of proper equipment
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: made it necessary to improvise tools and apparatus with which
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: to excavate. Mining picks were created by straightening army picks.
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: Cracker boxes were converted into hand barrels in which the
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: dirt was removed from the end of the tunnel. A
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: sawmill changed a bridge into timber necessary for shoring up
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: the mine. Pleasants estimated the tunnel direction and depth by
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: means of a theodolite sent him from Washington. The instrument,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: although outmoded, served its purpose well. The mine shaft hit
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: exactly beneath the salient at which it was aimed. One
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: of the most remarkable features of the gallery was the
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: method devised to supply the diggers at the end with
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: fresh air. The longer the tunnel grew, the more serious
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: the problem of ventilation became. It had been considered impossible
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: to dig a tunnel for any considerable distance without spacing
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: shafts at regular intervals in order to replace the polluted
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: air with a fresh supply. This problem had been solved
• 29:43
  Speaker 1: by the application of the simple physical principle that warm
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: air rises behind the union picket line and to the
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: right of the mine gallery, Although connected with it, The
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: miner's dug a ventilating chimney. Between the chimney and the
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: mine entrance. The erected an airtight canvas door. Through the
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: door and along the floor of the gallery, they laid
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: a square wooden pipe. A fire was then built at
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: the bottom of the ventilating shaft. As the fire warmed
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: the air it went up the chimney. The air draft
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: thus created drew the bad air from the end of
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: the tunnel where the men were digging. As this went out,
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: fresh air was drawn in through the wooden pipe to
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: replace it. Work on the tunnel continued steadily from June
• 30:30
  Speaker 1: twenty five, and by July seventeen the diggers were nearly
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: five hundred and eleven feet from the entrance and directly
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: beneath the battery at Pegram Salient. The Confederates had learned
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: of the mine by this time and had dug several
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: countermines behind their own lines in an effort to locate
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: the Union gallery. Two were very close, being dug on
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: either side of where the Pennsylvanians were at work. Although
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: digging in the countermines continued throughout July, Confederate fears seemed
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: to lessen during the same period. There were many reasons
• 31:06
  Speaker 1: for this, one being failure of their tunnels to strike
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: any Union construction. Another major reason, undoubtedly, was a belief
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: held by many that it was impossible to ventilate a
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: shaft of any length over four hundred feet without constructing
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: air shafts along it, and so far no air shafts
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: could be seen between the Union and Confederate lines. The
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: next step in the Union plan was to burrow out
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: into lateral galleries at the end of the long shaft. Accordingly,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: on July eighteen. Work was begun on these branches, which
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: extended to the right and left, paralleling the Confederate fortifications above.
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: When completed, these added another seventy five feet to the
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: total length of the tunnel, which now reached five hundred
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: and eighty six feet into the earth. It was about
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: twenty feet from the floor of the tunnel to the
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: enemy works above. The average internal dimensions of the shaft
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: were five feet high, with a base four and a
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: half feet wide, tapering to two feet at the top.
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Digging was finally completed on July twenty three. Four days later,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: the task of charging the mine with black powder was accomplished.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Three hundred and twenty kegs of powder weighing about twenty
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: five pounds each were arranged in the two lateral galleries
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: in eight magazines. The total charge was eight thousand pounds.
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: The powder was sandbagged to direct the force of the
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: explosion upward, and the fuses were spliced together to form
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: a ninety eight foot line. Meanwhile, preparations for the large
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: scale attack which was to follow the explosion of the
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: mine had been carried out. Burnside wanted his Ninth Corps
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: to lead the attack. Spearheaded by a fresh forty three
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: hundred men Negro division and pressed his wishes on Mead.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Both Mead and Grant approved their request, but refused to
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: allow the Black troops to lead the assault for fear
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: that if the attack failed, the Union commanders could be
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: accused of wanting to get rid of the only Negro
• 33:12
  Speaker 1: troops then with the Army of the Potomac. Burnside did
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: not learn of this decision until the day before the
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: assault July twenty nine, and he was forced to change
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: his plans. At the last moment. Three White divisions would
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: make the initial charge, with the Black Division in reserve.
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: Burnside had the commanding generals of these three divisions draw
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: straws to see which would lead. Brigadier General James F.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: Ledley of the First Division won the draw. Despite these
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: eleven hour changes, a plan of battle had been evolved.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: During the night of July twenty nine, thirty The bulk
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: of the Ninth Corps was assembled in the ravine behind
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the mine entrance and in the two approach trenches leading
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: to the picket line. Troops from other Union Corps were
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: marshaled as reinforcements. Artillerymen manning one hundred and ten guns
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: and fifty four mortars were alerted to begin shelling the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: Confederate line. To assist the attack, Grant sent a cavalry
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: and infantry force north of the James to threaten the
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Richmond defenses and destroy whatever they could of the Virginia
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: Central Railroad. The object was to draw as many of
• 34:24
  Speaker 1: Lee's soldiers away from Petersburg as possible, and at worked.
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: When the assault came, only eighteen hundred Confederates were left
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: to guard the city. At three fifteen a m. July thirty,
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Pleasants lit the powder fuse and mounted the parapet to
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: see the results of his regiment's work. The explosion was
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: expected at three thirty a m. Time passed slowly, and
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: the men huddled behind the lines grew more apprehensive. By
• 34:54
  Speaker 1: four fifteen, there could be no doubt that something had
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: gone wrong. Two volunteers from the forty the eighth Regiment,
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Jacob Doughty and Sergeant Airy Reese, crawled into the
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: tunnel and found that the fuse had burned out at
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: a splice. They relighted it and scrambled to safety. Finally,
• 35:12
  Speaker 1: at for forty a m, the earth trembled, and with
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: one great roar, men, equipment, and debris were hurled high
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: into the air. At least two hundred and seventy eight
• 35:23
  Speaker 1: Confederate troops were killed or wounded in the tremendous blast,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: and two of the four guns in the battery were
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: destroyed beyond repair. The crater torn by the powder was
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: at least one hundred and seventy feet long, sixty to
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: eighty feet wide, and thirty feet deep. The awesome spectacle
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: of the mine explosion caused a delay in the Union charge.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: Following the explosion, removal of obstructions between the lines caused
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: further delay. Soon, however, an advance was made to the crater,
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: where many of the attacking force paused to seek shelter
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: on its steael deep slope or look at the havoc
• 36:02
  Speaker 1: caused by the mine. The hard pressed Confederates rallied quickly
• 36:07
  Speaker 1: and soon were pouring shells and mini balls into their opponents.
• 36:11
  Speaker 1: Union reinforcements poured into the breach, but instead of going forward,
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: they either joined their comrades in the crater or branched
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: out to the immediate right and left along the lines.
• 36:23
  Speaker 1: By eight thirty that morning, a large part of the
• 36:25
  Speaker 1: Ninth corps had been poured into the captured enemy salient.
• 36:29
  Speaker 1: More than fifteen thousand troops now milled in and around
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: the crater. By prompt action and determined effort, the Confederates
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: had prevented a breakthrough. The attention of three batteries was
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: soon directed on the Blue Coats at the crater. Artillery
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: hammered with shot and shell the huddled groups of increasingly
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: demoralized men. In addition, mortars brought to within fifty yards
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: of the crater dropped shells on the soldiers with deadly effect.
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: Successful as these devices were in halting the Union advance,
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: Lee was aware that an infantry charge would be necessary
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: to dislodge the enemy. By six a m an order
• 37:12
  Speaker 1: had gone out to Brigadier General William Mahoney to move
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: two bricades of his division from the lines south of
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: Petersburg to the defense of the threatened position. Mahoney had
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: anticipated the order and already had his troops in motion.
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: Then Lee joined Beauregard in observing the battle from the
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: g House, five hundred yards to the rear of the
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: scene of action. In spite of the Confederate resistance, part
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: of the Northern Black Division and other regiments had by
• 37:43
  Speaker 1: eight a m advanced a short distance beyond their companions
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: at the crater. Shortly thereafter, Mahoney's lead Confederate brigade arrived
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: on the scene. The men fled into a ravine about
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: two hundred yards northwest of the crater and between it
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: and Petersburg. No sooner had they entered this protected position
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: than perceiving the danger to their lines, they charged across
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the open field into the mass of Federal soldiers. Although outnumbered,
• 38:12
  Speaker 1: they forced the northerners to flee back to the comparative
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: shelter of the crater. Then they swept on to gain
• 38:19
  Speaker 1: a portion of the line north of the Union held position.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: By ten thirty, another of Mahoney's brigades had reached the
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: point of danger, and it charged the Union troops holding
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the crater, only to be repulsed. Meanwhile, the lot of
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: the northern soldiers was rapidly becoming unbearable. Confederate artillery continued
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: to beat upon them. The closely packed troops dead, dying,
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: and living indiscriminately mixed, lacked shade from the blazing sun, food, water,
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: and above all competent leadership. Mead had ordered their withdrawal
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: more than an hour before the second Confederate charge, but
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: Burnside delayed the tree transmission of the order till after midday.
• 39:03
  Speaker 1: Many men had chosen to run the gauntlet of fire
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: back to their own lines, but others remained clinging to
• 39:09
  Speaker 1: the protective sides of the crater. The last scene in
• 39:13
  Speaker 1: the battle occurred shortly after one pm. Mahony had called
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: up a third brigade, and an attack spearheaded by the
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: fresh unit, succeeded in gaining the slopes of the crater.
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Some of the Union men, overcome with exhaustion and realizing
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: the helplessness of their situation, surrendered, but others continued to fight.
• 39:34
  Speaker 1: At one point where resistance centered, the Confederates put their
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: hats on ramrods and lifted them over the rim of
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: the crater. The caps were promptly torn into shreds by
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: a volley of mini balls. Before their foe could reload,
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Mahoney's forces jumped into the crater, where a desperate struggle
• 39:52
  Speaker 1: with bayonets, rifle butts, and fists ensued. Soon it was
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: all over. The Union army had lost more than four
• 40:00
  Speaker 1: thousand men killed, wounded or captured as against about fifteen
• 40:05
  Speaker 1: hundred for the Confederates. Again, as on June fifteen, eighteen,
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: a frontal assault had failed to take the Confederate stronghold.
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Even though Union numerical strength greatly exceeded that of the Confederates.
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: At the battle's close, Grant had more than eighty three
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: thousand men south of the Apromatox River, Lee had about
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: twenty two thousand Part seven fight for the Weldon Railroad. Grant,
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: if he reviewed the fruits of his campaign shortly after
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: July thirty, could not have felt much comfort. Three hammering
• 40:42
  Speaker 1: blows delivered against Petersburg had failed. Moreover two important railroads
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: still connected the city with the south. Lee, despite his
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: numerically inferior numbers, was still able to maintain a long
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: line of defenses around Petersburg and Richmond farther south. Now,
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: the Union outlook was brighter. Ten days before the Battle
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: of the Crater. Final operations against Atlanta had been begun
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: by Sherman on September two. It was to fall, and
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: the march to the sea followed in ten weeks. Yet
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: it was equally certain that Grant had accomplished an important
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: objective by committing Lee's weakened but still potent Army of
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Northern Virginia to a defensive position in the area adjacent
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: to Richmond. He was immobilizing the South's most powerful striking force. Moreover,
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: the Union failure at the Crater decided the future direction
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: of the campaign to capture Petersburg. All Grant's energy now
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: turned to extending his siege lines around the city and
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: cutting Lee's supply lines in an attempt to force him
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: out of his defenses. The first step taken in this
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: direction after July thirty was a strong effort to capture
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: the Weldon Railroad, which the Confederates had so nearly lost
• 42:03
  Speaker 1: in June. On August sixteenth, Major General Gouvernor K. Warren,
• 42:08
  Speaker 1: Union Fifth Corps commander received orders to attack, occupy, and
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: hold the Weldon Railroad, three miles below the city. The
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: seizure of the objective was quickly accomplished. On August eighteen,
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: the opening day of battle. More than a mile of
• 42:24
  Speaker 1: track near Globe Tavern, an old Colonial inn, was soon
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: in Union hands. Then Warren marched most of his troops
• 42:33
  Speaker 1: northward toward the city. They were in unfamiliar and heavily
• 42:37
  Speaker 1: wooded terrain where they were assailed by two Confederate brigades
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: led by Major General Henry Hef. The Union troops were
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: forced to fall back a short distance and in trench.
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: Here the Fifth Corps was reinforced by the Ninth Corps.
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: On the afternoon of the nineteenth, five brigades of Lieutenant
• 42:58
  Speaker 1: General A. P. Hill's Corps struck the Union infantry. Three
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: of the brigades under Mahoney managed to slip in behind
• 43:06
  Speaker 1: their opponents by taking advantage of the concealment offered by
• 43:10
  Speaker 1: the heavy growth of trees. They inflicted serious losses and
• 43:14
  Speaker 1: captured twenty five hundred prisoners. By nightfall, Warren had been
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: forced back one half mile nearer his new headquarters at
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Globe Tavern. August twenty was marked by comparative in activity,
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: although there was some skirmishing in the morning. Throughout the
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: following day A P. Hill, who had received reinforcements through
• 43:37
  Speaker 1: his men at the Union positions around the tavern, the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: attacks were in vain for the new Union lines held.
• 43:44
  Speaker 1: General Lee arrived with more infantry brigades during the afternoon,
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: but after discussing the situation with his generals, he determined
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: not to renew the attack. By the end of the day,
• 43:56
  Speaker 1: Lee realized that the upper portion of the Weldon Railroad
• 44:00
  Speaker 1: had been lost, and that any attempt to regain it
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: would be a needless sacrifice of manpower. One sentence from
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: a dispatch sent by Lee to the Confederate Secretary of
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: War on August twenty two shows the seriousness of the
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: loss of the railroad. Our supply of corn is exhausted today,
• 44:21
  Speaker 1: and I am informed that the small reserve in Richmond
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: is consumed. For a time, the Confederate government was able
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: to utilize the Weldon Railroad as far as Stoney Creek,
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: twenty miles below Petersburg, where supplies were transferred to wagons
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: and hauled around the left of the Northern Army to
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: Petersburg and Richmond. In December, the railroad line was destroyed
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: below Stoney Creek, and henceforth the beleaguered cities had only
• 44:49
  Speaker 1: two direct rail communications with the South, the Richmond and
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: Danville Railroad out of Richmond and the South Side from Petersburg.
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: On August twenty five, two days after the fighting at
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: Globe Tavern had ended, the Confederates scored a minor victory
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: with a surprise attack. Their blow was aimed at Hancock's
• 45:10
  Speaker 1: Second Corps, busily engaged in destroying railroad tracks at Reem Station,
• 45:16
  Speaker 1: nearly five miles below Globe Tavern. The Second Corps, containing
• 45:22
  Speaker 1: large numbers of inexperienced recruits, was badly beaten and more
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: than seventeen hundred were taken prisoner. The Southern victory was
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: short lived, for the destruction of their rail communications was continued.
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: The best that Lee could hope for in the future
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: would be to stem the Federal advance. In mid September,
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: Major General Wade Hampton, a cavalry commander of the Army
• 45:46
  Speaker 1: of Northern Virginia since J. E. B. Stuart's death in May,
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: led a remarkable raid of four thousand mounted troops around
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: the rear of the Union army, now numbering eighty thousand.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Succeeded in returning to Petersburg on September seventeen with about
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: twenty four hundred head of cattle and more than three
• 46:07
  Speaker 1: hundred prisoners, while suffering losses of only sixty one men
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: in two engagements with the enemy. Although this raised the
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: morale of the Confederates, it did not change the course
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: of the campaign. The Iron Band being forged outside their
• 46:23
  Speaker 1: city was a reality, and Grant, a tenacious man, had
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: not loosened his grip. End of Parts six and seven,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: Parts eight and nine of Campaign for Petersburg by Richard
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: Wayne Likes. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
• 46:50
  Speaker 1: Part eight. Union encirclement continues. The relentless westerly advance of
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: the besieging force was soon resumed after to the capture
• 47:00
  Speaker 1: of the Weldon Railroad in August. Constant skirmishing occurred between
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: the lines until in late September Grant struck again. The
• 47:10
  Speaker 1: Battle of Peebles Farm September twenty nine to October one
• 47:14
  Speaker 1: was really the second section of a two part struggle.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: The first took place closer to Richmond and was directed
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: at Fort Harrison, a strongly fortified point on the outer
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: defense line of the Confederate capital. Fort Harrison was approximately
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: midway between Richmond and Petersburg. On the morning of September
• 47:33
  Speaker 1: twenty nine, Union troops advanced and captured the fort and
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: held it the next day against a counter attack by
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: the former occupants. At the same time, Mead was moving
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: toward a further encirclement of Petersburg with more than twenty
• 47:48
  Speaker 1: thousand troops. The direction of his attack was northwest toward
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: Confederate earthworks along the Squirrel Level Road. The ultimate goal
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: was the capture of the South Side Railroad. Fighting began
• 48:02
  Speaker 1: on the twenty ninth as the Federal vanguard approached the
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Confederates in the vicinity of Peebles Farm. The engagement increased
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: in fury on the thirtieth and continued into the next day.
• 48:14
  Speaker 1: When the smoke of battle had blown away on October second,
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: Mead had extended the Union left flank three miles farther
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: west and had secured the ground on which Fort Fisher
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: would soon be built. This fort was to be the
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Union's biggest and was one of the largest earthen forts
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: in Civil War history. He was, however, stopped short of
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: the coveted south Side Railroad. Against the gain And Territory,
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: the Union army had suffered a loss of more than
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: thirteen hundred prisoners to the Confederacy and more than six
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty killed and wounded. The Southerners found that
• 48:52
  Speaker 1: their lines, while unbroken, were again extended. Each extension met
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: a thinner Confederate defense line. For a period of about
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: three weeks after the Battle of Peeble's Farm, the shovel
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: and pick again replaced the rifle musket as the principal
• 49:08
  Speaker 1: tools for soldiers. On both sides, forts were built, breastworks
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: dug and gabions constructed. Then on October twenty seven, the
• 49:19
  Speaker 1: Union troops moved again. This time they turned toward the
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: Boyton Plank Road and a stream known as Hatcher's Run,
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: twelve miles southwest of Petersburg. Again, Grant's subjective was Lee's
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: vital supply line, the south Side Railroad. The general plan
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: of operations was nearly the same as that used at
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: Peeble's Farm. Butler's Army of the James was ordered to
• 49:45
  Speaker 1: threaten attack in front of Richmond. Meanwhile, at the left
• 49:49
  Speaker 1: of the Union line, nearly forty three thousand infantry and
• 49:52
  Speaker 1: cavalry of the Army of the Potomac started for the
• 49:55
  Speaker 1: Boyton Plank Road. The columns made rapid progress, driving the
• 50:00
  Speaker 1: enemy outposts ahead of them and advancing until they reached
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Burgess Mill, where the Boynton Plank Road crossed Hatcher's Run.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Near Burgess Mill, heavy Confederate opposition was met and a
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: spirited engagement took place. The failure of Union General's Hancock
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: of the Second Corps and Warren of the Fifth Corps
• 50:21
  Speaker 1: to coordinate. The efforts of their respective columns, coupled with
• 50:25
  Speaker 1: a slashing thrust by Heath's infantry and dogged resistance by
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: Hampton's cavalry and horse artillery, resulted in a speedy northern withdrawal.
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: The Boyton Plank Road for a time at least remained
• 50:40
  Speaker 1: in southern hands, and Grant's encircling movement to cut Lee's
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: railroad was checked. The approach of winter made any large
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: scale effort by either side less probable, although daily skirmishes
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: and tightening of the siege lines continued. The slackening of
• 50:58
  Speaker 1: hostile action was used to good advantage by Union and
• 51:02
  Speaker 1: Confederate alight, as it had been in the previous respites
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: between battles, in the strengthening of the battle lines and
• 51:10
  Speaker 1: efforts to develop some rudimentary comforts in the cheerless camps.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: Throughout the last two months of eighteen sixty four and
• 51:18
  Speaker 1: the first month of the new year, there were no
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: strong efforts by either side Before Petersburg picket duty, sniping
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: and patrolling prevailed. The only action out of the trenches
• 51:30
  Speaker 1: was the Higsford Raid in December, when a strong Union
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: force destroyed the Weldon Railroad as far as Hicksford, about
• 51:38
  Speaker 1: forty miles south of Petersburg. Lee now had a thirty
• 51:42
  Speaker 1: five mile front, with the left resting on the Williamsburg
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Road east of Richmond and the right on Hatcher's Run
• 51:50
  Speaker 1: southwest of Petersburg. To hold this long line, he had
• 51:54
  Speaker 1: in December an effective troop strength of only sixty six thousand,
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: five hundred thirty five. Facing these undernourished and ragged troops were,
• 52:04
  Speaker 1: according to official Union returns of the same month, one
• 52:07
  Speaker 1: hundred and ten thousand, three hundred sixty four well fed
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: and equipped Federals. The picture throughout the rest of the
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: South was no more reassuring to Confederate sympathizers. In the
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: Shenandoah Valley northwest of Richmond, Major General Philip H. Sheridan's
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: army had finally crushed Lieutenant General Jubilee A. Early's southern
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: forces at Cedar Creek on October nineteen and was destroying
• 52:35
  Speaker 1: the scattered resistance that remain far to the southwest. Sherman
• 52:40
  Speaker 1: had captured Atlanta, Georgia in September, and Savannah had surrendered
• 52:45
  Speaker 1: on December twenty one. As the new year dawned, his
• 52:48
  Speaker 1: army was preparing to march north toward Grant to complete
• 52:52
  Speaker 1: the gloomy southern prospects. Fort Fisher, Guardian Bastion of Wilmington,
• 52:57
  Speaker 1: North Carolina, the last of the Pedressy's Atlantic coast ports
• 53:02
  Speaker 1: to remain open, was under fatal bombardment by mid January.
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: In late January, President Jefferson Davis, hoping that peace might
• 53:12
  Speaker 1: be made with the Union, agreed to send commissioners to
• 53:15
  Speaker 1: meet with President Lincoln. The peace commissioners, on January thirty one,
• 53:20
  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty five, crossed over to the Union lines at Petersburg.
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: Soldiers of both armies, suspecting their mission, cheered as the
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: commissioner slowly walked over the scarred earth of the Crater battlefield.
• 53:34
  Speaker 1: At Hampton Roads. They met Lincoln, but the peace conference
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: ended in failure. Davis's insistence on Southern independence as a
• 53:42
  Speaker 1: condition for peace brought about the impass. The war continued.
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: The Battle of Hatcher's Run on February five, seven, eighteen
• 53:52
  Speaker 1: sixty five, was the result of a further drive by
• 53:55
  Speaker 1: the Federals in their attempt to encircle Petersburg US Union Corps.
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: The Second and fifth, reinforced by a cavalry division and
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: elements of the sixth Corps, advanced across Hatcher's Run. Their
• 54:09
  Speaker 1: immediate objective was the Boyton Plank Road. As had happened before,
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: the Confederates quickly moved out to engage the Union columns.
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: On the afternoon of the fifth, and again the next day.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: The Southerners counter attack. While many Confederate units displayed their
• 54:26
  Speaker 1: customary elan, others did not. There were several reasons for this.
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: The inferior numbers of the Southern Army, the extremely bad weather,
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: which made a Union attack appear unlikely, the ravages of
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: cold on badly equipped and poorly uniformed men, and most important,
• 54:45
  Speaker 1: the breakdown of the food supply system. The only Federal
• 54:49
  Speaker 1: units to reach the Boyton Plank Road belonged to the cavalry,
• 54:53
  Speaker 1: but in view of the Confederate response and the discovery
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: that General Lee was not utilizing this road to supply
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: his army, they were recalled. Consequently, no effort was made
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: to hold the Boytan Plank Road, but the Federals did
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: occupy and fortify the newly extended line to Hatcher's Run
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: at a point three miles below Burgess Mill. Thus, again
• 55:17
  Speaker 1: the Union lines had been pushed to the west, and
• 55:21
  Speaker 1: as before, Lee was forced to lengthen his defenses. The
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: Petersburg Richmond Front, with its recent extension, now stretched over
• 55:30
  Speaker 1: thirty seven miles, and the army holding it had dwindled
• 55:33
  Speaker 1: through casualties and desertion to slightly more than fifty six
• 55:37
  Speaker 1: thousand on March first, eighteen sixty five. The Battle of
• 55:42
  Speaker 1: Hatcher's Run was another fight in the constant movement of
• 55:45
  Speaker 1: the Union army to the west after June eighteenth, eighteen
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: sixty four. In its relentless extension around Petersburg, which continued
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: day by day with the addition of a few more
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: feet or yards of picket line and rifle pits, there
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: had occurred five important thrusts aimed by the Northern leaders
• 56:07
  Speaker 1: at encircling the city. They included two attacks on the
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: Weldon Railroad in June and August eighteen sixty four, Peeble's
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: Farm in September and October, Boyinton Plank Road in October,
• 56:22
  Speaker 1: and finally the move to Hatcher's Run in February eighteen
• 56:27
  Speaker 1: sixty five. They met with varying degrees of success, but
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: still the Union noose was not drawn tightly enough. The
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: enlisted men of both armies, however, remained largely unaware of
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: the strategy of their commanders. Their daily existence during the
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: campaign took on a marked flavor, different in many respects
• 56:47
  Speaker 1: from the more dashing engagements which preceded it. Too often
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: war as a combination of bloodshed and boredom, and Petersburg,
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: unlike most other military operations of the Civil War, had
• 57:00
  Speaker 1: more than its share of the latter. The Petersburg episode
• 57:04
  Speaker 1: assault and resistance dragged on to become the longest unbroken
• 57:09
  Speaker 1: campaign against a single American city in the history of
• 57:13
  Speaker 1: the United States. The romantic and heroic exploits were relatively few,
• 57:19
  Speaker 1: and between them came long stretches of uninspiring and backbreaking routine.
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: The men of both sides had much in common, despite
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: the bitterness with which they fought. In battle, they were enemies,
• 57:32
  Speaker 1: but in camp they were on the same common level.
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: Stripped of the emotional tension and exhilaration of combat, they
• 57:40
  Speaker 1: all appear as bored, war weary, homesick men. The greater
• 57:45
  Speaker 1: part of their time was primarily utilized by digging and
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: constructing fortifications, performing sentry, and picket duty and striving to
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: speed up the long succession of days. They lived in rude,
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: improvised shelters, often made of mud and log walls with
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: tent roofs. Chimneys were made of mud and barrels. There
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: was some friendly interchange of words and gifts between the lines,
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: but enmity was more rampant than brotherly regard. Off duty,
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: the amusements and pastimes of the soldiers were simple and few,
• 58:20
  Speaker 1: limited in most cases to their ability to improvise them.
• 58:24
  Speaker 1: The most striking difference between the armies, as the Petersburg
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: Campaign lengthened, was that while the Northerners suffered most from boredom,
• 58:33
  Speaker 1: the Confederates were plagued by the demoralizing effects of hunger.
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: The Petersburg Campaign was grim business. Amusements could lighten the
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: heart for only a brief time at best. Ever, present
• 58:47
  Speaker 1: were the mud and disease which followed every Civil War camp.
• 58:51
  Speaker 1: Both opposing forces felt the chill of winter and the
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: penetrating rain. The discouragement of the homesick, who never knew
• 58:59
  Speaker 1: when or if they could return to their homes, was
• 59:02
  Speaker 1: a hardship not peculiar to any rank. However, when spring
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: came to warm the air. There was a difference between
• 59:10
  Speaker 1: the two opposing armies. It was more than a numerical superiority.
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: Then the Union soldiers felt confidence, while the Southern veterans
• 59:20
  Speaker 1: ill clothed, ill fed, and nearly surrounded New Only despair,
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: Part nine, Lee's Last Gamble. By mid March eighteen sixty five,
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: the climax of the campaign and of the war was
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: close at hand. Lee's forces in both Richmond and Petersburg
• 59:41
  Speaker 1: had dwindled to about fifty five thousand. Grant, on the
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: other hand, had available or within easy March at least
• 59:49
  Speaker 1: one hundred and fifty thousand Moreover, Sheridan, having destroyed the
• 59:53
  Speaker 1: remnants of Early's forces at Waynesboro, Virginia on March second,
• 59:58
  Speaker 1: had cleared the Shenandoa Valley of Confederates and was now
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: free to rejoin Grant before Petersburg. Everywhere Lee turned, the
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: military situation was black Union forces under Sherman driving the
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: Confederates before them, had turned north from Savannah and were
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: now hammering Johnston's forces in North Carolina. With President Jefferson
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Davis's consent, Lee sent a letter to General Grant on
• 1:00:25
  Speaker 1: March second, suggesting an interview. In the early morning hours
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: of the second day following the dispatch of the letter,
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: Lee and Major General John B. Gordon discussed the three
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: possible solutions to the problems which perplexed them. One to
• 1:00:41
  Speaker 1: negotiate satisfactory peace terms. This had already been acted upon
• 1:00:45
  Speaker 1: in Lee's note to Grant. Two retreat from Richmond and Petersburg,
• 1:00:51
  Speaker 1: and unite with Johnson for a final stand. Three attack Grant.
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: In order to facilitate retreat, there followed a series of
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: interviews with Confederate government officials in Richmond. Each of the
• 1:01:04
  Speaker 1: plans was analyzed. The first was quickly dropped when Grant
• 1:01:08
  Speaker 1: made it clear that he was not empowered to negotiate,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: Nor was the second proposal, that of retreat, deemed advisable
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: by President Davis, who wished to strike one more blow
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: before surrendering his capital. This left only the third alternative
• 1:01:25
  Speaker 1: to attack before settling on a definite course of action. However,
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: Lee ordered General Gordon to make a reconnaissance of the
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: Federal lines around Petersburg to see if they could be
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 1: broken anywhere. Gordon soon reported that the best place for
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: an attack was at Fort Stedman, a union work located
• 1:01:44
  Speaker 1: near the city point and Petersburg Railroad and only one
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 1: hundred and fifty yards to the east of a strongly
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: fortified Confederate position named Colquat Salient. Lee agreed with Gordon's assessment,
• 1:01:58
  Speaker 1: and on the night of March twenty three, Rie told
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 1: Gordon to make preparations for an attack on the fort.
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: About one half of the besieged army could be used
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 1: to charge the Union line in the vicinity of Fort Steadman.
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: It was hoped that this would cause Grant to shorten
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: his front by withdrawing his left flank to protect his
• 1:02:18
  Speaker 1: endangered right. Then Lee could detach a portion of the
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: Confederate army to send to the aid of Johnston. As
• 1:02:26
  Speaker 1: with shorter lines, he would not need as many men
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: in Petersburg. Should the attack fail, he would attempt to
• 1:02:33
  Speaker 1: retreat with all his forces for a final stand with Johnston.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: This would be the last desperate gamble of the Army
• 1:02:40
  Speaker 1: of Northern Virginia. The details for the attack were worked
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: out by Gordon during the night preceding the assault. The
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: obstructions before the Confederate lines were to be removed and
• 1:02:53
  Speaker 1: the Union pickets overcome as quietly as possible, A group
• 1:02:57
  Speaker 1: of fifty men were to remove the cheveaux de friees
• 1:03:00
  Speaker 1: and abbaties protecting Fort Stedman. Then three companies of one
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 1: hundred men each were to charge and capture the fort.
• 1:03:09
  Speaker 1: When Steadman was safely in Confederate hands, these men were
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: to pretend they were Union troops, and, forming into three columns,
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: were to rush to the rear to capture other positions.
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 1: The next step was to send a division of infantry
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: to gain possession of the siege lines north and south
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: of the fallen bastion. When the breach had been sufficiently widened,
• 1:03:32
  Speaker 1: Southern cavalry were to rush through and destroy telegraphic communications
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: with Grant's headquarters at city Point. They were also ordered
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: to cut the military railroad. Additional reserves were to follow
• 1:03:45
  Speaker 1: the cavalry. The attack was scheduled for the morning of
• 1:03:49
  Speaker 1: March twenty five. The fifty axe men and the three
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: hundred soldiers who were to make up the advanced columns
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: were given strips of white cloth to wear across their
• 1:03:58
  Speaker 1: chests to tell friend from foe. The officers in charge
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: were given the names of Union officers known to be
• 1:04:05
  Speaker 1: in the vicinity and were told to shout their assumed
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 1: names if challenged. Beginning about three a m. Confederates professing
• 1:04:14
  Speaker 1: to be deserters crossed to the Union pickets, offering to
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 1: surrender their purpose to be near at hand to overwhelm
• 1:04:22
  Speaker 1: the unsuspecting Pickets. When the attack began at four a m.
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: Gordon gave the signal and the Confederates sprang forward. At first,
• 1:04:32
  Speaker 1: the attack went as planned. Blue clad pickets were silent
• 1:04:36
  Speaker 1: so effectively that not a shot was fired. Union obstructions
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: were quickly hewn down by the axe men, and the
• 1:04:43
  Speaker 1: small vanguard of three hundred swept through Battery Number ten,
• 1:04:48
  Speaker 1: which stood immediately north of Fort Steadman. They then rushed
• 1:04:52
  Speaker 1: into the fort. The occupants were completely surprised and many
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: surrendered without a fight. Battery eleven, to the south of
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: Fort Steadman, was also soon in Confederate hands. Union resistance
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: in this early stage was ineffective, although Battery eleven was
• 1:05:09
  Speaker 1: recaptured for a short time. More Confederates pressed into the
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 1: torn line while three columns set out in the general
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: direction of City Point and along the Prince George Courthouse
• 1:05:21
  Speaker 1: Road behind Steedman. Other infantry units moved north and south
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: along the Federal emplacements. To the north, they captured the
• 1:05:29
  Speaker 1: fortifications as far as Battery nine, where they were stopped
• 1:05:33
  Speaker 1: by the Union defenders. To the south, they progressed as
• 1:05:37
  Speaker 1: far as the ramparts of Fort Haskell. A desperate struggle ensued,
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: but here too, the northerners refused to yield. Despite these checks,
• 1:05:48
  Speaker 1: the Confederates were now in possession of almost one mile
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: of the Union line. In the center of the Confederate attack,
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: the three small columns quickly advanced as far as Harrison's Creek,
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: a small stream which winds its way north to the
• 1:06:04
  Speaker 1: Apromatox River, six hundred and fifty yards behind Fort Steadman.
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: One of the columns succeeded in crossing the stream and
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: continuing toward a small Union artillery post on the side
• 1:06:15
  Speaker 1: of what had been Confederate Battery eight, renamed Fort Friend
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: by the Federals, but canister from the post forced the
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: column back to the creek. Confusion took hold of the Confederates,
• 1:06:27
  Speaker 1: who were unable to locate the positions they had been
• 1:06:31
  Speaker 1: ordered to capture behind the Union line. Artillery fire from
• 1:06:35
  Speaker 1: northern guns on a ridge to the east held them
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: on the banks of Harrison's Creek. By six a m.
• 1:06:42
  Speaker 1: Their forward momentum had been checked. Union infantry then charged
• 1:06:47
  Speaker 1: from the ridge to attack the Southerners. The forces joined
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: battle along Harrison's Creek, and the Confederates were soon forced
• 1:06:55
  Speaker 1: back to Fort Steadman. For a brief time, they held
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: their newly captured position. At seven thirty a m. Brigadier
• 1:07:03
  Speaker 1: General John F. Hartraff advanced on them with a division
• 1:07:06
  Speaker 1: of Northern troops. Heavy small arms and artillery fire on
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: Gordon's men, threatened them with annihilation unless they retired to
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: their own lines. About eight a m. Gordon received an
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: order from Lee to withdraw his men. The order was
• 1:07:23
  Speaker 1: quickly dispatched across the open fields to the soldiers in
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: the captured Union works. By now, however, the line of
• 1:07:30
  Speaker 1: retreat was raked by a vicious crossfire, and many Confederates
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: preferred surrender to withdraw. About the same time Gordon was
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: starting back, Hartraff ordered his division of Pennsylvania troops to
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: recapture Fort Steadman. Within a few moments, the Union line
• 1:07:48
  Speaker 1: was completely restored, and the forlorn Southern hope of a
• 1:07:51
  Speaker 1: successful disruption of Northern communications followed by secret withdrawal from
• 1:07:57
  Speaker 1: the city was lost. Equally bad, if not worse, to
• 1:08:01
  Speaker 1: the Confederates, was the loss of more than four thousand killed,
• 1:08:05
  Speaker 1: wounded and captured, as compared to the Union casualties of
• 1:08:09
  Speaker 1: less than fifteen hundred. Of the three Confederate plans of
• 1:08:13
  Speaker 1: action before the Battle of Fort Stedman, now only the
• 1:08:17
  Speaker 1: second retreat was possible. The situation demanded immediate action, for
• 1:08:24
  Speaker 1: even as Gordon had been preparing on March twenty four
• 1:08:27
  Speaker 1: to launch his attack, Grant had been engaged in planning
• 1:08:31
  Speaker 1: more difficulties for the harrised defenders of Petersburg. End of
• 1:08:37
  Speaker 1: parts eight and nine, Parts ten and eleven of a
• 1:08:48
  Speaker 1: Campaign for Petersburg by Richard Wayne Likes. This LibriVox recording
• 1:08:53
  Speaker 1: is in the public domain. Part ten five forks beginning
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: of the end, the coming of better weather heralded the
• 1:09:03
  Speaker 1: opportunity for the final blows against the city. Grant, who
• 1:09:08
  Speaker 1: was now passing some of the most anxious moments of
• 1:09:11
  Speaker 1: his life, planned that this effort should be concentrated on
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: the extreme right of the long Confederate line which protected
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: Richmond and Petersburg. This meant that hostilities would soon commence
• 1:09:23
  Speaker 1: somewhere west of Hatcher's Run, perhaps in the neighborhood of
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: Dinwiddie court House, or a road junction called Five Forks,
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: which lay seventeen miles southwest of Petersburg. On March twenty four,
• 1:09:37
  Speaker 1: Grant ordered the second and ninth Corps and three Division
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: of the Army of the James to the extreme left
• 1:09:45
  Speaker 1: of the Union lines facing Lee. This resulted in a
• 1:09:48
  Speaker 1: strong concentration northeast of Hatcher's run. Two days later, Sheridan
• 1:09:54
  Speaker 1: arrived at City Point, fresh from his victorious campaign in
• 1:09:58
  Speaker 1: the Shenandoah Valley, and was ordered to join his troops
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: to those concentrated on the left. Finally, it began to
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: appear that the Army of Northern Virginia was to be encircled. Meanwhile,
• 1:10:10
  Speaker 1: Lee was waiting only until he collected supplies and rations
• 1:10:15
  Speaker 1: to last his men for a week and until the
• 1:10:17
  Speaker 1: roads were passable before leaving to join Johnston. He hoped
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: to leave on or about April tenth. The information he
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: received about the rapid accumulation of Union forces opposite his
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: lightly held right was very disturbing, for if it was true,
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 1: the Federals not only threatened to cut off his retreat
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 1: to the west and south, but they also posed a
• 1:10:41
  Speaker 1: serious danger to the South Side Railroad, the last remaining
• 1:10:45
  Speaker 1: communication link between Petersburg and the South, which continued to
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: deliver a trickle of supplies to the city. On March
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: twenty nine, the Union troops moved out. Sheridan's cavalry crossed
• 1:10:58
  Speaker 1: the Rowenti Creek and occupied Dinwittie court House, while the
• 1:11:02
  Speaker 1: Second and Fifth Corps crossed Hatcher's Run in moving into
• 1:11:07
  Speaker 1: position on the left of the Second Corps. Warren's Fifth
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: Corps soldiers encountered heavy resistance north of Gravelly Run. While
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: Sheridan was marshaling his troops around Dinwiddie. Lee issued orders
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: on March twenty nine which sent major Generals George E.
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 1: Pickett and fitz Hugh Lee to the Confederate right near
• 1:11:28
  Speaker 1: five Forks, far beyond Petersburg. Sheridan was prepared to move
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 1: against the Confederates with his cavalry on March thirty, but
• 1:11:37
  Speaker 1: heavy rains lasting from the evening of March twenty nine
• 1:11:41
  Speaker 1: until the morning of the thirty first made a large
• 1:11:44
  Speaker 1: scale movement impractical over the muddy roads. On the last
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 1: day of the month, part of Sheridan's forces, which is
• 1:11:51
  Speaker 1: pushed northwest toward five Forks was attacked by Southern forces,
• 1:11:55
  Speaker 1: which succeeded in driving them back to Dinwittie court House,
• 1:11:59
  Speaker 1: where Sheridan had a fresh division. Pickett then found his
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: men badly outnumbered and withdrew them to five Forks without
• 1:12:08
  Speaker 1: pressing the advantage he had gained. This incident, called the
• 1:12:12
  Speaker 1: Battle of Dinwitty court House, was a minor Confederate victory,
• 1:12:16
  Speaker 1: although Sheridan's men were neither demoralized nor disorganized by the attack,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: and Robert E. Lee could find small comfort in the situation. Meanwhile,
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: there had been a savage clash on White Oak Road
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: between Warren's Fifth Corps and Major General bush Rod Johnson's
• 1:12:35
  Speaker 1: Confederate Division. The Confederates at first swept all before them,
• 1:12:40
  Speaker 1: but in the end numbers told and they were compelled
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: to withdraw behind their breastworks. The Confederates had been able
• 1:12:48
  Speaker 1: to concentrate on their extreme right in the vicinity of
• 1:12:51
  Speaker 1: Five Forks, only about ten thousand cold and hungry soldiers
• 1:12:56
  Speaker 1: to meet the expected Union drive to turn their right flank.
• 1:13:00
  Speaker 1: Massed against this force, commanded by Picket were about ten
• 1:13:04
  Speaker 1: thousand Northern cavalry and twelve thousand infantry. The desperate urgency
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: of General Lee's fears was indicated in the dispatch he
• 1:13:13
  Speaker 1: sent to Picket early on April first, the day of
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 1: the struggle for five Forks. Hold five forks at all hazards,
• 1:13:21
  Speaker 1: protect road to Ford's depot, and prevent Union forces from
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 1: striking the south side railroad. Regret exceedingly your forced withdrawal
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 1: and your inability to hold the advantage you had gained.
• 1:13:34
  Speaker 1: Throughout April one, Picket's troops worked unceasingly erecting barricades of
• 1:13:40
  Speaker 1: logs and earth around five Forks. About four p m.
• 1:13:44
  Speaker 1: With only two hours of daylight remaining, Sheridan's cavalry and
• 1:13:48
  Speaker 1: Warren's infantry attacked. While the cavalry occupied the attention of
• 1:13:52
  Speaker 1: the Confederate defenders along White Oak Road, divisions of infantrymen
• 1:13:57
  Speaker 1: from the Fifth Corps moved to the left of Pickett's troops, and,
• 1:14:00
  Speaker 1: after crossing the White Oak Road, which connected Five Forks
• 1:14:04
  Speaker 1: with Petersburg, hit them on the weekly held left flank.
• 1:14:09
  Speaker 1: Lacking sufficient artillery support, infantry reserves, and the presence of
• 1:14:14
  Speaker 1: their commander, the Southerners were quickly overcome, realizing that their
• 1:14:19
  Speaker 1: position was no longer tenable. Portions of the Confederate troops
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: tried to retreat to Petersburg, but the avenue of escape
• 1:14:27
  Speaker 1: had been cut by the Union advanced across the White
• 1:14:31
  Speaker 1: Oak Road. By dusk, the Battle of Five Forks had ended.
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: Union troops were in possession of the disputed area. They
• 1:14:39
  Speaker 1: had cut off and captured more than thirty two hundred
• 1:14:42
  Speaker 1: prisoners while suffering a loss of probably less than a thousand.
• 1:14:47
  Speaker 1: Now the beseeching forces were in position for the first
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: time to accomplish Grant's objective of cutting lee supply lines
• 1:14:55
  Speaker 1: and breaking through his fortifications. The western end of Lee's
• 1:15:00
  Speaker 1: mobile defenses had crumbled. Those Confederates who had survived the
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: Battle of Five Forks had fallen back to the south
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: Side railroad, where they rallied for a stand, but darkness
• 1:15:12
  Speaker 1: had prevented a Union pursuit. Grant's troops were within striking
• 1:15:17
  Speaker 1: distance of the rail line, located less than three miles
• 1:15:20
  Speaker 1: from Five Forks. Lee now knew that Petersburg and Richmond
• 1:15:24
  Speaker 1: must be evacuated without delay, or the Army of Northern
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: Virginia would be completely cut off from outside help and
• 1:15:32
  Speaker 1: all possible escape routes would be gone. The problem of
• 1:15:36
  Speaker 1: Assigning a proper significance to Five Forks is a difficult one.
• 1:15:40
  Speaker 1: It is now known that Lee and the Confederate government
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: officials were on the verge of abandoning their capital in
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: June of the previous year. The South Side railroad had
• 1:15:51
  Speaker 1: been a most important objective of the invading army, but
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: the plight of Lee's army had grown so desperate during
• 1:15:58
  Speaker 1: the intervening months that whether the railroad remained open or
• 1:16:02
  Speaker 1: not mattered. Little Grant, of course, did not know this
• 1:16:06
  Speaker 1: as a positive fact, although the uncomfortable situation of his
• 1:16:10
  Speaker 1: opponents was something of which he was doubtless aware. The
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: real importance of Five Forks lay in the probability that,
• 1:16:18
  Speaker 1: by making it more difficult for Lee to escape, it
• 1:16:21
  Speaker 1: brought the inevitable a little closer. Lieutenant Colonel Horace Porter,
• 1:16:26
  Speaker 1: of Grant's staff was positive more than thirty years later
• 1:16:30
  Speaker 1: that news of Sheridan's success prompted the Union Commander in
• 1:16:34
  Speaker 1: chief to issue the orders for the attack that carried
• 1:16:37
  Speaker 1: the city part eleven fall of Petersburg and Richmond. Continuously,
• 1:16:46
  Speaker 1: throughout the night following the Battle of Five Forks, the
• 1:16:50
  Speaker 1: Union artillery played upon the Confederate earthworks and dropped shells
• 1:16:54
  Speaker 1: into the city. Troops were prepared for a general assault
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: ordered for the following dawn. At four forty a m.
• 1:17:01
  Speaker 1: April second, eighteen sixty five, a frontal attack began with
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: the sound of a signal gun from Fort Fisher. A
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: heavy ground fog added to the confusion as the Federals
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: drove in the Confederate pickets, cut away the abbats, and
• 1:17:17
  Speaker 1: stormed over the works. The story of the fighting along
• 1:17:21
  Speaker 1: the Petersburg Front on that spring Sunday is one of
• 1:17:25
  Speaker 1: Union's success over stout Confederate resistance. Major General Horatio G.
• 1:17:31
  Speaker 1: Wright's Union sixth Corps broke through the works defended by
• 1:17:35
  Speaker 1: troops of ap Hills Corps, and rolled up the Confederate
• 1:17:40
  Speaker 1: line to right and left, while several regiments rushed on
• 1:17:44
  Speaker 1: toward the south side railroad. Other elements of Grant's army
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: swept away the remnants of the Confederate lines along Hatcher's Run.
• 1:17:53
  Speaker 1: General Hill was killed early in the day by a
• 1:17:56
  Speaker 1: Union soldier near the Boyton Plank Road while on the
• 1:17:59
  Speaker 1: way to rally his men at Hatcher's Run. The desperateness
• 1:18:03
  Speaker 1: of the Southern position was shown when about ten a. M.
• 1:18:07
  Speaker 1: Lee telegraphed President Davis to inform him of the turn
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: of events at Petersburg. The message read, I advised that
• 1:18:15
  Speaker 1: all preparations be made for leaving Richmond to night. Davis
• 1:18:19
  Speaker 1: received the message while attending Sunday services at Saint Paul's Church.
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: He left immediately, destroying the calm of worship to prepare
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: for evacuating the capital. The flight of the Confederate government
• 1:18:32
  Speaker 1: was promptly begun. By midday, the entire outer line to
• 1:18:37
  Speaker 1: the west of Petersburg had been captured, with the exception
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: of Fort Gregg. The city was now completely surrounded except
• 1:18:44
  Speaker 1: to the north. The left of the Union line finally
• 1:18:47
  Speaker 1: rested on the bank of the Apromatics River. After months
• 1:18:51
  Speaker 1: of strenuous effort, it now became apparent to Lee that
• 1:18:55
  Speaker 1: he must hold an inner line west of Petersburg until night,
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: when it would be possible for him to retreat from
• 1:19:03
  Speaker 1: the city. While gray clad troops were forming along this line,
• 1:19:07
  Speaker 1: built on the banks of Old Indian Town Creek, the
• 1:19:11
  Speaker 1: defenders of Fort Gregg put up a stubborn, delaying action
• 1:19:15
  Speaker 1: against the northern advance. Approximately three hundred men and two
• 1:19:19
  Speaker 1: pieces of artillery met an onslaught of five thousand Northerners.
• 1:19:24
  Speaker 1: The outcome of the struggle was determined by the numbers
• 1:19:27
  Speaker 1: in the attacking force, but the capture of Fort Gregg
• 1:19:30
  Speaker 1: occurred only after bitter hand to hand combat. The purpose
• 1:19:34
  Speaker 1: of the defense had been accomplished, however, for a thin
• 1:19:39
  Speaker 1: but sturdy line running behind them from Battery forty five
• 1:19:43
  Speaker 1: to the Apromatox River had been manned temporarily. At least,
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: street fighting within Petersburg had been avoided. Flows directed at
• 1:19:53
  Speaker 1: other points, such as Fort Mahoney on the Jerusalem Plank Road,
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: were slowed. After troops of Major General John g Park's
• 1:20:01
  Speaker 1: ninth Corps had captured twelve guns and four hundred yards
• 1:20:05
  Speaker 1: of the Confederate line to the right and left of
• 1:20:09
  Speaker 1: the road. Desperate counter attacks by Gordon's Confederates kept the
• 1:20:13
  Speaker 1: Federals from exploiting this breakthrough. Yet there was no doubt
• 1:20:17
  Speaker 1: in the minds of Lee and other Southern leaders that
• 1:20:20
  Speaker 1: all hope of retaining Petersburg and Richmond was gone. It
• 1:20:25
  Speaker 1: was obvious that if the lines held the Union Army
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: in Czech on April second, they must be surrendered on
• 1:20:32
  Speaker 1: the morrow. The object was to delay until evening when
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: retreat would be possible. The close of the day found
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: the weary Confederates concentrating within Petersburg and making all possible
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: plans to withdraw. Lee had issued the necessary instructions at
• 1:20:49
  Speaker 1: five o'clock that afternoon. By eight p m. The retreat
• 1:20:53
  Speaker 1: was under way, the artillery preceding the infantry across the
• 1:20:57
  Speaker 1: Apromatox River. Amelia Courthouse, forty miles to the west, was
• 1:21:02
  Speaker 1: designated as the assembly point for the troops from Petersburg
• 1:21:06
  Speaker 1: and Richmond. Grant had ordered the assault on Petersburg to
• 1:21:11
  Speaker 1: be renewed early on April three. It was discovered at
• 1:21:15
  Speaker 1: three a m. That the southern earthworks had been abandoned.
• 1:21:18
  Speaker 1: An attack was not necessary. Union troops took possession of
• 1:21:22
  Speaker 1: the city shortly after four o'clock in the morning. Richmond
• 1:21:26
  Speaker 1: officially surrendered four hours later. President Lincoln, who had been
• 1:21:31
  Speaker 1: in the vicinity of Petersburg for more than a week,
• 1:21:34
  Speaker 1: came from Army headquarters at City Point that same day
• 1:21:38
  Speaker 1: for a brief visit with Grant. They talked quietly on
• 1:21:42
  Speaker 1: the porch of a private house for one and a
• 1:21:44
  Speaker 1: half hours before the President returned to City Point. Grant,
• 1:21:49
  Speaker 1: with all of his army, except the detachments necessary to
• 1:21:53
  Speaker 1: police Petersburg and Richmond and to protect city point set
• 1:21:57
  Speaker 1: out in pursuit of Lee left Major General George L.
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: Hartzoff in command at Petersburg. Petersburg had fallen, but it
• 1:22:07
  Speaker 1: was at a heavy price. In the absence of complete records,
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: the exact casualties will never be known, but in the
• 1:22:14
  Speaker 1: ten month campaign, at least forty two thousand Union soldiers
• 1:22:19
  Speaker 1: had been killed, wounded, and captured, while the Confederates had
• 1:22:23
  Speaker 1: suffered losses of more than twenty eight thousand. Although the
• 1:22:27
  Speaker 1: Northern forces had lost more men than their opponents, they
• 1:22:30
  Speaker 1: had been able to replenish them more readily. Moreover, Grant
• 1:22:34
  Speaker 1: had been prepared to utilize the greater resources at his disposal,
• 1:22:39
  Speaker 1: and the Petersburg campaign had been turned by him into
• 1:22:43
  Speaker 1: a form of relentless attrition which the Southern Army had
• 1:22:47
  Speaker 1: not been able to stand. The result had been the
• 1:22:50
  Speaker 1: capture of Petersburg and Richmond, but more important, it had
• 1:22:54
  Speaker 1: led to the flight of the remnants of the once
• 1:22:56
  Speaker 1: mighty Army of Northern Virginia. On the Sunday following the
• 1:23:01
  Speaker 1: evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. These troops were cut off
• 1:23:05
  Speaker 1: at Aprimatos Courthouse, destroying any hopes they might have had
• 1:23:09
  Speaker 1: for uniting with Johnston in North Carolina. In this small
• 1:23:13
  Speaker 1: Virginia town nearly one hundred miles west of Petersburg, the
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: Army of Northern Virginia, now numbering little more than twenty
• 1:23:21
  Speaker 1: eight thousand, surrendered to the Union forces. Within a week
• 1:23:25
  Speaker 1: of the fall of Petersburg, the major striking force of
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: the Confederacy had capitulated. General Johnston surrendered his army to
• 1:23:34
  Speaker 1: General Sherman in North Carolina on April twenty six. By
• 1:23:38
  Speaker 1: early June eighteen sixty five, all Confederate forces had been
• 1:23:43
  Speaker 1: surrendered and the Civil War was over. End of Parts
• 1:23:50
  Speaker 1: ten and eleven. End of Campaign for Petersburg by Richard
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: Wayne Likes