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re: 150 years ago this day...
Posted on 3/24/15 at 9:50 pm to BadLeroyDawg
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.
1
Posted on 3/25/15 at 9:22 pm to BadLeroyDawg
Sunday, 26 March 1865
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan’s men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general’s wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan’s Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan’s true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee’s army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I’m going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy’s offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
The cavalry command of Union Major General Phillip H. Sheridan crossed the James River and headed towards Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant’s lines at Petersburg, Virginia, which would give Grant an even larger force and thin out Confederate General Robert E. Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Lee was preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond so as to pull back westward to attempt a reunion with General Joseph E. Johnston in North Carolina. As Grant laid low and continued to apply pressure on the Army of Northern Virginia, he allowed the other Union armies to one by one dissect the other armies of the Confederacy.
President Abraham Lincoln reviewed troops and watched Sheridan’s men cross the James River while on his visit to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Grant and Sheridan later conferred, and prepared instructions for the beginning of the forthcoming campaign. An incident occurred in which Mrs. Lincoln became enraged upon seeing the wife of a Federal general sitting horseback beside the president during the troop review. The first lady vented her wrath on both the general’s wife and the wife of General Grant.
General Robert E. Lee wrote to President Davis: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee prepared to abandon Petersburg and Richmond and move west to join Johnston in North Carolina.
Grant issued false orders for Sheridan’s Federals to join William T. Sherman in North Carolina. Sheridan’s true orders, issued in secret, were to lead the upcoming Union drive to destroy Lee’s army.
On the Gulf Coast front, skirmishing erupted as Union troops led by Major General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby pushed in nearer to Spanish Fort and began firing on Spanish Fort outside Mobile, Alabama.
Other skirmishing occurred at Muddy Creek, Alabama.
Union forces enter Pollard, Alabama, in the Mobile Campaign.
Skirmishing broke out in Bath County, beyond Owingsville, Kentucky.
A Federal expedition moved from Bonnet Carre to the Amite River, Louisiana, in search of the Confederate guerrillas who captured the local provost-marshal of this parish, meeting with no success, as they reportedly searched everywhere.
A detachment of sailors led by Acting Ensign Peyton H. Randolph of the USS Benton joined troops under the command of Brigadier General Bernard G. Farrar in a combined expedition to Trinity, Louisiana, where they captured a small number of Confederate soldiers as well as horses, arms and stores.
Sherman boarded the steamer Russia this morning en route to City Point. He said: "I’m going up to see Grant for five minutes and have it all chalked out for me, and then come back and pitch in."
Confederate envoy James Mason conferred with the Earl of Donoughmore about the Confederacy’s offer to free the slaves in exchange for British recognition. The earl stated that had the proposal been made before the Battle of Gettysburg, it would have been accepted. But now, Mason said: "He replied that the time had gone by."
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