The Richmond-Petersburg campaign began on June 9, 1864, and ended on March 25, 1865. It was General Grant’s attempt to rebound from his horrific loss at Cold Harbor. Grant wanted to finish Lee and his army by flanking and encircling them in Virginia. Although it lead Lee’s army to the brink of losing all their supplies and forced him to eventually retreat from both cities; the Siege of Richmond and Petersburg was not actually considered a siege, but rather a nine months of trench warfare (which was a new concept of warfare at the time).
The decision to abandon the two cities ultimately lead to the defeat and surrender of the Confederate States of America.
General Grant, after being promoted to Lieutenant-General and coming off his mildly successful “Overland Campaign” was determined to finish the Confederacy. Although the battle of Cold Harbor was considered wholesale slaughter for the Union, the Confederates actually lost a larger portion of his army. Lee wouldn’t be able to quickly replace those men, but Grant promptly rallied his army and was ready for another offensive. Lee, on the other hand, became desperate to hold the Confederate capital — Richmond, Virginia. Three days into the offensive on June 12, 1864, Grant crossed the James River. Grant’s target was not exactly the capital Richmond, but rather the city of Petersburg. He chose Petersburg for many reasons: it was right on the Appomattox River, it was a major intersection for railroad traffic, and had it strategic value for trapping Lee’s army in Richmond. Because Lee believed Grant would attack Richmond, he only had a hand-full of men defending Petersburg.
The Essay on Grant And Lee Great General
Grant and Lee Throughout the course of my history career, which is not very long, teachers and professors have always focused on the point that General Grant was a butchering alcoholic who won the war solely on the account of his stubborn personality. And on the other hand, teachers portrayed General Lee as a masterful strategist, who used Christian values in order to win the rebellion. However, ...
The Union’s first assault on the city of Petersburg was led by Benjamin Butler. It was an unsuccessful attack on a ten mile line of fortifications known as the Dimmock Line. The unsuccessfulness of the assault stemmed mainly from two Generals, Gillmore and Hinks. They had little experience in leading troops and instantly froze at the display of Confederate earthworks that opposed them. General Butler was so furious with Gillmore that he had him arrested. On June 15, 1864 General Grant sent another wave of attacks on Petersburg. Despite their previous failure, Butler’s army was once again selected to lead the second assaults on Petersburg. William Smith and his men managed to break through the Confederate lines around Harrison’s Creek. But he did not continue the attack because he was tentative regarding his orders. On June 17, various uncoordinated Union attacks were launched. None had any significant success in penetrating the Dimmock Line. After four days and little success, General Meade finally decided to pull back. The Union suffered over 11,000 casualties in the time span of the assaults, and the Confederates in comparison a mere 4,000 casualties. Although Lee had failed to thwart the Union army from laying siege to the city of Petersburg. Grant realized he couldn’t easily take the city by assault, so he began cutting railroads between Petersburg and Richmond. For about a month the two sides continued to skirmish with each other, until Grant launched the Battle of the Carter.
Grant was determined to defeat Lee, and though he realized it would be difficult, he preferred an assault to a drawn out siege (especially after his experiences at Vicksburg).
General Ambrose Burnside proposed to dig under the confederate lines and a fort known as “Elliott’s Salient”. The explosion had created a 80-foot deep crater in the middle of the confederate lines, which James Ledlie lead his men directly into. The Confederates cut down Ledlie’s soldiers and the plan had failed. Burnside sent more men into the crater, but they were also annihilated. The Confederates had not only successfully stopped General Burnside, but also lost him his job! Union casualties were almost 4,000 with Confederate casualties at only 1,500. For nearly a year, neither side would make significant progress in the battle; only engaging each other in various raids and skirmishes.
The Essay on Confederate Troops Union General Back
... to attended to the wounded Union soldiers. After I regrouped with the men I asked to talk to General Grant to ask him what ... see in my life. The Confederate army lined up sixty-two cannons at point blank range at the Union troops in the Hornets ... soldiers whose cries and screams were unforgettable. The Confederates launched eleven attacks on the Union line that refused to break. I then had ...
Now the year is 1865. By March, Lee’s army had taken a severe hit from Grant’s siege. Disease ran rampant, there were few supplies and many men deserted the Confederate Army to escape the horrible conditions. This left the ratio of Grant to Lee’s men about 125,000 to 50,000. And General Sherman was expected to soon come up through the Carolinas to support Grant’s siege. In order to buy himself some time from Grant making an assault on the city, Lee had General John Gordon lead a surprise attack to disrupt the Union lines. Gordon disguised engineers as deserting soldiers, and had them destroy the Union earthworks. They were soon followed by a charge of about 300 men. They managed to punch through the Union rear, and make it all the way to Fort Stedman and capture General McLaughlen — going completely beyond Gordon’s expectations of the attack. While the Union defensive line was forming up again, the hungry Confederates were busy satisfying themselves on captured Union rations. They were surrounded and forced to retreat, which caused major casualties for the Confederates (almost 4,000).
The loss of Fort Stedman was exceedingly demoralizing for Lee’s army.
On April 1, 1865, the Union struck another blow to the Confederates at the battle of Five Forks; with the confederates losing almost 3,000 men. The next day, Grant ordered an all-out assault on the Confederate lines around Petersburg. A breakthrough was made at Boydton Plank Road, but it was stalled after a valiant Confederate defense at Fort Gregg. This gave Lee enough time to remove his soldiers form both Petersburg and Richmond and rendezvous with General Johnston’s men in North Carolina. The Union would soon launch The Appomattox Campaign, forcing the surrender of the South. The bloody siege of Richmond and Petersburg was won by the Union, at the price of over 60,000 men from both sides.
