re: 150 years ago this day...

Wednesday, 29 March 1865

General Robert E. Lee shifts Confederate forces to the right of his Petersburg line to counter the ever growing Federal threat to the Five Forks area. Major General Philip H. Sheridan begins moving forces in that direction to cut the two railroads supplying Confederates in Petersburg and Richmond. Sheridan reaches Dinwiddie Court House this afternoon in a movement toward the Southside Railroad.

In a downpour, Lieutenant General Hiram U. Grant, after conferring with the President, begins the final assault on the Confederate lines at Petersburg, Virginia. Grant launches his wide swinging move to the southwest of Petersburg in an attempt to roll up Lee's flank. Ever concerned about his lifeline on the James River, he wrote Rear Admiral David D. Porter: "In view of the possibility of the enemy attempting to come to City Point, or by crossing the Appomattox at Broadway Landing, getting to Bermuda Hundred during the absence of the greater part of the army, I would respectfully request that you direct one or two gunboats to lay in the Appomattox, near the pontoon bridge, and two in the James River, near the mouth of Bailey's Creek, the first stream below City Point emptying into the James." Porter complied with double measure, sending not one or two but several ships to Grant's assistance.

An engagement commences at Lewis Farm near Gravelly Run, Virginia, and skirmishing occurs at the junction of the Quaker and Boydton Roads, as well as on the Vaughan Road, when Lee sends Major Generals Fitzhugh Lee and George Pickett to repel the Federal attack.

Full report: On this day in 1865, the final campaign of the Civil War begins in Virginia when Union troops under General Ulysses S. Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert E. Lee’s outnumbered Rebels were soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a desperate race west.

Eleven months earlier, Grant had moved his army across the Rapidan River in northern Virginia and began his Overland Campaign--the bloodiest campaign of the War, costing the Union over 55,000 casualties in a little over 40 days. For almost six weeks, Lee and Grant fought along an arc that swung east of the Confederate capital at Richmond. They engaged in some of the conflict’s bloodiest battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor before settling into trenches for a siege of Petersburg, 25 miles south of Richmond. The trenches eventually stretched all the wayto Richmond, and during the ensuing months the armies glowered at each other across a no man’s land. Periodically, Grant launched attacks against sections of the Rebel defenses, but Lee’s men managed to fend them off.

Time, however, was running out for Lee. His army was dwindling in size to about 35,000 able bodies, while Grant’s continued to grow–the Army of the Potomac now had more than 125,000 men ready for service. On 25 March, Lee attempted to split the Union lines when he attacked Fort Stedman, a stronghold along the Yankee trenches. His army was beaten back, and he lost nearly 5,000 men. On March 29, Grant seized the initiative, sending 12,000 men past the Confederates’ left flank and threatening to cut Lee’s escape route from Petersburg. Fighting broke out there, several miles southwest of the city. Lee’s men could not arrest the Federal advance. On 1 April, the Yankees struck at Five Forks, soundly defeating the Rebels under General George Pickett and leaving Lee no alternative. He pulled his forces from their trenches and raced west, followed by Grant. It was a race that even the great Lee could not win. He surrendered his army on 9 April, 1865, at Appomattox Court House.

Thomas Maley Harris, USA, is appointed Brigadier General.

Major General Frederick Steele's Union column reaches Weatherford, Alabama, in the Mobile, Campaign.

Skirmishing occurs at Blackwater River, Kentucky.

Colonel William H. Dickey, of the 84th US Colored Troops, assumes the command of the US Forces at Morganza, Louisiana.

Skirmishes continue daily in Southwest Missouri.

Federal scout from Waynesville, Missouri, to Rolla, camping at Jackson's Mills, and Coppage's Mill, on Spring Creek, to the Big Piney, with one reported partisan guerrilla shot to death today.

Skirmishing breaks out near Moseley Hall, and at Wilkesboro, North Carolina, with Union Major General George Stoneman's Cavalry.

Federal troops scout from Stephenson's Depot, Virginia, through the Shenandoah Valley, to Smithfield, West Virginia.

The USS Osage, under Lieutenant Commander William M. Gamble, upped anchor and got underway inside the bar at the Blakely River, Alabama. Gamble was trying to avoid colliding with the USS Winnebago, which was drifting alongside in a strong breeze Suddenly a torpedo exploded under the monitor's bow, and, Gamble reported, "...the vessel immediately commenced sinking." The Osage lost four men and had eight wounded in the explosion. She was the third ship to be sunk in the Blakely during March and the second in two days as torpedo warfare cost the North dearly even though its ships controlled waters near Mobile.