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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 3/23/15 at 10:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Posted on 3/23/15 at 10:31 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Friday, 24 March 1865 (continued)
The USS Republic, under Acting Ensign John W. Bennett, was dispatched up the Cape Fear River from Wilmington to check reports that detachments of General Wheeler's cavalry were operating in the area. About six miles up the river a cavalry squad was driven away with gunfire. Bennett then landed a reconnoitering party. It was learned that the mounted Confederates had broken into small squads and were plundering the country. The reconnaissance party also made contact with a rear guard detachment of General Sherman's army en route to Fayetteville .
The USS Quaker City, Commander William F. Spicer in charge, captured the blockade runner Cora with a cargo of lumber off Brazos Santiago, Texas.
The USS Republic, under Acting Ensign John W. Bennett, was dispatched up the Cape Fear River from Wilmington to check reports that detachments of General Wheeler's cavalry were operating in the area. About six miles up the river a cavalry squad was driven away with gunfire. Bennett then landed a reconnoitering party. It was learned that the mounted Confederates had broken into small squads and were plundering the country. The reconnaissance party also made contact with a rear guard detachment of General Sherman's army en route to Fayetteville .
The USS Quaker City, Commander William F. Spicer in charge, captured the blockade runner Cora with a cargo of lumber off Brazos Santiago, Texas.
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Posted on 3/24/15 at 9:50 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Saturday, 25 March 1865
Southerners claiming to be deserters arrived at the Union lines near Fort Stedman at 3 a.m. on the east side of the Petersburg, Virginia, siege fortifications. They were, however, advance men aiming at sabotage when, an hour later, Confederate Major General John B. Gordon launched his surprise attack at Fort Stedman and surrounding entrenchments. The Confederates quickly overwhelmed the opposition and rushed into the fort, completely surprising the Federal garrison. Several batteries and other trenches were taken until nearly a mile of Federal lines was in Southern hands. Like other Confederate late-war attacks, with their shortage of manpower, it lost momentum which allowed Federal troops to rally, change position and push the attackers back to Fort Stedman. By 7:30 a.m., a Federal division assaulted the fort, forcing Gordon to withdraw. Fifteen minutes later, the entire attack was defeated and the Federal lines were restored. Confederates lost approximately 4,000 irreplaceable troops to the Federal casualties that numbered around 1,500.
Full report: Early this morning, Confederate General Robert E. Lee makes Fort Stedman his last offensive of the war in a desperate attempt to break out of Petersburg, Virginia. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.
For nine months, Petersburg was under siege by the Army of the Potomac and the overall Union commander, General Hiram U. Grant. The two great armies had fought a bloody campaign in the spring of 1864, and then settled into trenches that eventually stretched for 50 miles around Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee could not win this war of attrition, but his men held out through the winter of 1864 to the spring of 1865. Now, Lee realized the growing Yankee army could overwhelm his ever diminishing force when the spring brought better weather for an assault. He ordered General John B. Gordon to find a weak point in the Federal defenses and attack.
Gordon selected Fort Stedman, an earthen redoubt with a moat and 9-foot walls. Although imposing, Gordon believed it offered the greatest chance for success since it was located just 150 yards from the Confederate lines–the narrowest gap along the entire front. Early in the morning of 25 March, some 11,000 Rebels hurled themselves at the Union lines. They overwhelmed the surprised Yankees at Fort Stedman and captured 1,000 yards of trenches. After daylight, however, the Confederate momentum waned. Gordon’s men took up defensive positions, and Union reinforcements arrived to turn the tide. The Rebels were unable to hold the captured ground, and were driven back to their original position.
The Union lost around 1,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, while Lee lost probably three times that number, including some 1,500 captured during the retreat. Already outnumbered, these loses were more than Lee’s army could bear. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that it would be impossible to maintain the Petersburg line much longer. On 29 March, Grant began his offensive, and Petersburg fell on 3 April. Two weeks after the Battle of Fort Stedman, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis received a warning from Lee that Richmond may have to be abandoned after the defeat at Fort Stedman. Davis told his wife Varina: "My headquarters for the future may be in the field, and your presence would embarrass and grieve me instead of giving comfort." Mrs. Davis pleaded to stay with her husband, but Davis said: "You can do this in but one way: by going yourself and taking the children to a place of safety. If I live, you can come to me when the struggle is ended..." but he did not "...expect to survive the destruction of constitutional liberty." Davis prohibited her from taking any food with her because "...the people need it."
General Grant wired Rear Admiral David D. Porter that General Lee's soldiers had broken through the right of the Union's line and that he thought they would strike toward the essential James River supply base at City Point a few miles from the breakthrough. "I would suggest putting one or two gunboats on the Appomattox up as high as the pontoon bridge..." he told the Admiral. Porter immediately ordered gunboats up the Appomattox River to guard the pontoon bridge "...at all times." Simultaneously, USS Wilderness, Acting Master Henry Arey, was ordered up the Chickahominy River to communicate with General Sheridan, carry intelligence about any Confederate activity along the river, and bring back dispatches from Sheridan for Grant.
Lee's attack was his last bold gamble for great stakes. Never one to submit tamely to even the most formidable odds, he sought in the surprise assault to cripple Grant's army so that the overwhelming spring attack the Federals were building up could not be launched. Lee hoped that then he could speed to North Carolina with part of his veterans, join General Johnston and crush Sherman while still holding the Richmond-Petersburg front. Had the attack gone as well in its later stages as it did in the first onslaught, he would have been within range of City Point, only some ten miles away. The wholesale destruction of the host of supply ships, mountains of stores, and vast arsenal would have ended Grant's plant for seizing Richmond that spring.
President Abraham Lincoln visited Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant at City Point, Virginia, and then took the military railroad to the Petersburg lines where he rode horseback over part of the Fort Stedman battlefield, the site of the morning engagement.
Union troops under Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby reached Spanish Fort, nine miles east of the fortifications Mobile, Alabama, after a trying march because of drenching rains. Confederate Brigadier General Randall Lee Gibson tries desperately to organize his nearly 2,800 Southerners to oppose the Federal force that numbered well over 32,000 men. Despite strong earthworks around the city, it was impossible for the Rebels to hold out long without assistance. Despite Mobile’s formidable defenses, the simple truth was the Confederates were hopelessly outnumbered.
Major General William T. Sherman left his Federal army at Goldsboro under John M. Schofield’s command and headed to City Point to confer with Grant. Meanwhile, Federals repaired the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern, allowing troops to begin receiving food, supplies, and mail from the North.
Two Union expeditions began from Brashear City, Louisiana. One was with the 93rd US Colored Infantry, from Brashear City, aboard the gunboat, No. 43, to Indian Bend, for the purpose of destroying or capturing a barge said to have been used by the Rebels for transporting a number of horses over Grand Lake and into their lines.
The other expedition from Brashear City, aboard the steamer, Cornie, was down the Atchafalaya River, to near Oyster Bayou, Louisiana, for the purpose of taking possession of a large oyster boat which lay stranded on the beach at a point 6 miles west of Oyster Bayou.
Southerners claiming to be deserters arrived at the Union lines near Fort Stedman at 3 a.m. on the east side of the Petersburg, Virginia, siege fortifications. They were, however, advance men aiming at sabotage when, an hour later, Confederate Major General John B. Gordon launched his surprise attack at Fort Stedman and surrounding entrenchments. The Confederates quickly overwhelmed the opposition and rushed into the fort, completely surprising the Federal garrison. Several batteries and other trenches were taken until nearly a mile of Federal lines was in Southern hands. Like other Confederate late-war attacks, with their shortage of manpower, it lost momentum which allowed Federal troops to rally, change position and push the attackers back to Fort Stedman. By 7:30 a.m., a Federal division assaulted the fort, forcing Gordon to withdraw. Fifteen minutes later, the entire attack was defeated and the Federal lines were restored. Confederates lost approximately 4,000 irreplaceable troops to the Federal casualties that numbered around 1,500.
Full report: Early this morning, Confederate General Robert E. Lee makes Fort Stedman his last offensive of the war in a desperate attempt to break out of Petersburg, Virginia. The attack failed, and within a week Lee was evacuating his positions around Petersburg.
For nine months, Petersburg was under siege by the Army of the Potomac and the overall Union commander, General Hiram U. Grant. The two great armies had fought a bloody campaign in the spring of 1864, and then settled into trenches that eventually stretched for 50 miles around Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Lee could not win this war of attrition, but his men held out through the winter of 1864 to the spring of 1865. Now, Lee realized the growing Yankee army could overwhelm his ever diminishing force when the spring brought better weather for an assault. He ordered General John B. Gordon to find a weak point in the Federal defenses and attack.
Gordon selected Fort Stedman, an earthen redoubt with a moat and 9-foot walls. Although imposing, Gordon believed it offered the greatest chance for success since it was located just 150 yards from the Confederate lines–the narrowest gap along the entire front. Early in the morning of 25 March, some 11,000 Rebels hurled themselves at the Union lines. They overwhelmed the surprised Yankees at Fort Stedman and captured 1,000 yards of trenches. After daylight, however, the Confederate momentum waned. Gordon’s men took up defensive positions, and Union reinforcements arrived to turn the tide. The Rebels were unable to hold the captured ground, and were driven back to their original position.
The Union lost around 1,000 men killed, wounded, and captured, while Lee lost probably three times that number, including some 1,500 captured during the retreat. Already outnumbered, these loses were more than Lee’s army could bear. Lee wrote to Confederate President Jefferson Davis that it would be impossible to maintain the Petersburg line much longer. On 29 March, Grant began his offensive, and Petersburg fell on 3 April. Two weeks after the Battle of Fort Stedman, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Confederate President Jefferson Davis received a warning from Lee that Richmond may have to be abandoned after the defeat at Fort Stedman. Davis told his wife Varina: "My headquarters for the future may be in the field, and your presence would embarrass and grieve me instead of giving comfort." Mrs. Davis pleaded to stay with her husband, but Davis said: "You can do this in but one way: by going yourself and taking the children to a place of safety. If I live, you can come to me when the struggle is ended..." but he did not "...expect to survive the destruction of constitutional liberty." Davis prohibited her from taking any food with her because "...the people need it."
General Grant wired Rear Admiral David D. Porter that General Lee's soldiers had broken through the right of the Union's line and that he thought they would strike toward the essential James River supply base at City Point a few miles from the breakthrough. "I would suggest putting one or two gunboats on the Appomattox up as high as the pontoon bridge..." he told the Admiral. Porter immediately ordered gunboats up the Appomattox River to guard the pontoon bridge "...at all times." Simultaneously, USS Wilderness, Acting Master Henry Arey, was ordered up the Chickahominy River to communicate with General Sheridan, carry intelligence about any Confederate activity along the river, and bring back dispatches from Sheridan for Grant.
Lee's attack was his last bold gamble for great stakes. Never one to submit tamely to even the most formidable odds, he sought in the surprise assault to cripple Grant's army so that the overwhelming spring attack the Federals were building up could not be launched. Lee hoped that then he could speed to North Carolina with part of his veterans, join General Johnston and crush Sherman while still holding the Richmond-Petersburg front. Had the attack gone as well in its later stages as it did in the first onslaught, he would have been within range of City Point, only some ten miles away. The wholesale destruction of the host of supply ships, mountains of stores, and vast arsenal would have ended Grant's plant for seizing Richmond that spring.
President Abraham Lincoln visited Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant at City Point, Virginia, and then took the military railroad to the Petersburg lines where he rode horseback over part of the Fort Stedman battlefield, the site of the morning engagement.
Union troops under Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby reached Spanish Fort, nine miles east of the fortifications Mobile, Alabama, after a trying march because of drenching rains. Confederate Brigadier General Randall Lee Gibson tries desperately to organize his nearly 2,800 Southerners to oppose the Federal force that numbered well over 32,000 men. Despite strong earthworks around the city, it was impossible for the Rebels to hold out long without assistance. Despite Mobile’s formidable defenses, the simple truth was the Confederates were hopelessly outnumbered.
Major General William T. Sherman left his Federal army at Goldsboro under John M. Schofield’s command and headed to City Point to confer with Grant. Meanwhile, Federals repaired the railroad from Goldsboro to New Bern, allowing troops to begin receiving food, supplies, and mail from the North.
Two Union expeditions began from Brashear City, Louisiana. One was with the 93rd US Colored Infantry, from Brashear City, aboard the gunboat, No. 43, to Indian Bend, for the purpose of destroying or capturing a barge said to have been used by the Rebels for transporting a number of horses over Grand Lake and into their lines.
The other expedition from Brashear City, aboard the steamer, Cornie, was down the Atchafalaya River, to near Oyster Bayou, Louisiana, for the purpose of taking possession of a large oyster boat which lay stranded on the beach at a point 6 miles west of Oyster Bayou.
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