The Battle of Petersburg - Essay Example

The battle of Petersburg By + The battle of Petersburg The battle of Petersburg is also called the assault on Petersburg. The battle took place in the city of Petersburg hence the name. The assault was carried out in the year 1864 from June to April of the later. The principle commanders of the armies were Lt. Gen.Ulysses S. Grant (US), Gen.P.G.T, and Gen. Robert Lee (CS). There was a total army of 104,000 forces involved of which 62,000 were US while 42,000 were CS. In the battle, the estimated casualties were 50, 386 of which 33, 600 were the US while 16786 were CS. The battle involved the union and the confederates. Outlined below is the description of the major events that took place in the battle. The Potomac Army approached Petersburg from the south and began its operations. General Smith’s troops were sent after they were successful in the Cold Harbor battle. Butler sent Gilmore with 10500 men to attack the Confederates at Petersburg. However, this attack was a failure, and they had to wait another five days to attack again. Smith attempted another attack against Petersburg with his army on June 14th. This time he succeeded in driving the confederates away from their strong lines that consisted of rifle pits. The success ascribed to Smith also included the capturing of the powerful salient, connecting lines, guns and 300 prisoners. As Smith and his men celebrated their success, other armies joined those in Petersburg in an attempt to protect the City (Chicks, 2015 pg.78). In the night of 15th and 16th, the works that the confederates put up to defend their City bore fruits as the Smith army lost its prize. On the same date, June 16th, Gen Butler accorded General Terry an army to destroy the rail lines by forcing General Beauregard’s out of the area they occupied. After succeeding in possessing the rail, he was driven out of the area by an army led by General James Longstreet, who was headed to Richmond from Petersburg. Terry was sent back to Bermuda by the large army the General controlled. On the 17th, the 7th and 9th corps attacked Petersburg again in the afternoon hours. This attack lasted even at night with the confederates fighting to recapture anything that they had lost. They succeeded in forcing the 9th corps out of the battle. After the loss of nearly 10000 men, Grant withheld attacking Petersburg by a storm to save him from such losses. On the other hand, he used the Hancock and Wright Corps towards the left of Petersburg to force the Confederates back to the right (Cloyd, 2014 pg.45). They then attacked and captured more confederates. More attacks were launched on the morning that followed, and the Meade and Hill corps captured more confederates. Wright and Hancock advance and destroyed the Weldon road. As the nationals attempted to force their way through the destroyed roads, they were killed, captured as the others took off at a heavy loss. This forced Robert Lee of the Nationals to withdraw some of his forces from the south to help in reinforcing some other sectors that had immensely failed. Mines were blow off in the attacks that followed that led to many confederates being blow off to death (Jordan, 2014 pg. 23). After several weeks of calmness, the attacks continued once again. Grant sent Hancock and Birney armies to the north side in which battles ensured with the confederates from the 13th to the 18th of August. The nationals lost 5000 men in this siege. On the other hand, General Warren had succeeded in driving off the nationals and also attempted to get back the Weldon road that had been captured already. Peace and quiet followed for about a month after the attack in Richmond and Petersburg (Sandweiss, 2014 pg 75). General Birney and Ord captured Fort Harrison in September and an attempt to capture a neighboring fort faced fierce opposition that resulted in heavy losses. Ord was heavily wounded and Burnham and the place named fort Burnham to honor that general slain in the war. Meade ordered General Warren to try to force off the Nationals from the Weldon road, but this only forced more battles to ensure between the two armies between October 1st and 2nd. The battle was followed by another pause in the battles as each of the forces contemplated on their moves (Trudeau, 2014 pg. 39). The army of the nationals assailed General Lee’s work in Hatchers Run only to lead to a fatal struggle. On 29th October, the nationals repulsed and withdrew back to their entrenchment away from Petersburg. By this time, the confederates had lost approximately 15000 prisoners and 4000 men. On the other hand, the Nationals had lost about 10000 men and lost 15378 as prisoners at the hand of the confederates they had continued to attack. The Potomac army had some of its winter quarters just ahead of the Northern Virginia army (Jordan, 2014 pg.90). In this light, the confederate’s leaders who served in the government thought that abandoning Virginia due to the presence of the army just above them was a cool move in order to concentrate the armies of Lee and Roanoke into other areas that were not risky. However, politicians in Virginia could not adhere to such a catastrophic move as it would be seen as a sign of weakness. This forced President Davis to leave their projects and concentrate on the matter. In December, Warren had managed to capture the Weldon South and also expanded their grounds south. Grant, therefore, decide to make his moves on Lee by March (Cloyd, 2014 pg.23). In this, he cut off all the communications with Richmond. A fight ensued in Hatcher’s Run as the nationals attempted to expand their control in that area. As Lee withdrew his forces from Shenandoah Valley, Grant was given an opportunity to attack from this side. However, this turned out to be a trap as the nationals found the confederates in waiting just beyond their visible points and the confederates enjoyed the victory in this case (Chicks, 2015 pg. 45). In order to strength his men, Lee thought of emancipating the slaves to make soldiers out of them. However, he could not obtain a law to support his idea. He, therefore, had to come up with a new way to ensure that his small army survived to the end and did not suffer from the lack of resources. He, therefore, decides to break through the lines of General Grant regardless of the move being dangerous and risky to form a junction in North California with Johnston. Grant was conscious of such a move and a battle ensued on the areas that Lee opted to exploit. On 25th, they attacked Fort Steadman against the 9th corps (Sandweiss, 2014 pg 47). The moves were, however, a failure on Lee’s part as his army ended up in a confused state. After all the lines of communication were cut off Lee understood the grave danger in which he now lay. He, therefore, left 80 000 James Longstreet’s corps to defend Richmond. On the other hand, he attempted to march his army against the lines of the nationals, which turned out to be a total loss on his part. Although at first his success had seemed assured, it was not to be the case. He was acting against General Warren, who made a countercharge that ended the assurance of Lee’s success. The confederates were driven back with the help of the Hancock’s corps. Lee then saw another weakness of the national army on the left side and attempted to attack. A battle ensued on this part held by the Sheridan where both parties to the battle lost many men (Jordan, 2014 pg 35). General Wright, Ord and Parke who were charged with the entrenchments of the nationals outside of Petersburg were asked to accompany the bombardments they were carrying out with assaults of the city. The bombardments were carried out up to around 4 am while the assaults took place at daybreak (Cloyd, 2014 pg.10). Parker was responsible for the outer line of the confederates. On the other hand, Wright was responsible for the left heading towards Hatchers Run and also oversaw the works in the confederate’s entrenchments. It was this organization that left Lee and his army under siege, and there was no way he could get help from his allies outside of the city. As the assaults were carried out, Gibbon lost around 500 men in the process. The confederates were contained in the inner circle of Petersburg and had no way out of the city at all. As James Longstreet made his way with an army from Richmond in an attempt to save Lee, the city, and his friends, he failed. General Lee, a close associate of General Lee, was also shot in the process of this breakthrough to recover some of the entrenchment of the confederate’s army. Lee now understood he could not protect the city anymore or the people that inhabited it. On the Sunday of April 2nd, he called the government and asserted that all his lines of communication had been breached at three different places, and thus it was his loss in the war. Lee’s troop withdrew from the city, and the battle was over (Trudeau, 2014 pg. 103). References Chick, S. M. (2015). The Battle of Petersburg, June 15-18, 1864. U of Nebraska Press. Cloyd, B. (2014). Remembering the Battle of the Crater: War as Murder by Kevin M. Levin (review). Civil War History, 60(1), 98-100. Jordan, B. M. (2014). Petersburg Campaign. A Companion to the US Civil War, 521-539. Sandweiss, M. A. (2014). Photography and the American Civil War. History of Photography, 38(3), 315-317. Trudeau, N. A. (2014). The Last Citadel: Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. Savas Beatie. Read More