Siege of Petersburg

battle_name=Siege of Petersburg

Early stages

Initial Union attacks

The battle for the city began shortly after the Union defeat at Cold Harbor. Grant decided to take Richmond though Petersburg, and began positioning the Union army on June 15 by slipping away from Lee and crossing the James River. This represented a change of strategy from that of the preceding Overland Campaign. There, confronting and defeating Lee's army in the open was the primary goal; now, Grant selected a geographic and political target and knew that his superior resources could besiege Lee there, pin him down, and either starve him into submission or lure him out for a decisive battle. Lee at first believed that Grant's main target was Richmond, and only devoted minimal troops under the command of General P.G.T. Beauregard to the defense of Petersburg.

Related Topics:
Cold Harbor - June 15 - James River - Overland Campaign - P.G.T. Beauregard

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With his minimal troop strength of around 2200 men, Beauregard deployed his forces in a series of fortifications named the Dimmock Line along the south side of the city. On the 15th, Union troops of the XVIII Corps under the command of General William F. ?Baldy? Smith attacked Beauregard's lines, and quickly opened up a hole in the defenses. Union commanders were apprehensive about continuing to attack, as Beauregard had engaged in a set of elaborate feints to fool the Union into believing he had more men and more guns than he actually did, including lighting many campfires and building fake cannons out of logs ("Quaker Guns"). Union forces failed to continue to press attacks on the Confederate lines, allowing Lee to reinforce Beauregard's forces in the next few days as the Confederate forces fell back to a new defensive line. With the Union's blunders during the first days of the battle, the stage was set for a drawn out siege.

Related Topics:
Dimmock Line - XVIII Corps - William F. ?Baldy? Smith - Quaker Gun

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Union General Ulysses S. Grant made his headquarters in a cabin on the lawn of Appomattox Manor, the home of Dr. Richard Eppes and the oldest home (built in 1763) in what was then City Point, but is now Hopewell, Virginia.

Related Topics:
Ulysses S. Grant - Appomattox Manor - Richard Eppes - 1763 - City Point - Hopewell, Virginia

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The Crater

In an attempt to break the siege, Union troops of the IX Corps under the command of General Ambrose Burnside mined a tunnel under the Confederate lines at Elliot's Salient. On July 30, 1864, they detonated the explosives, creating a crater some 135 feet in diameter that remains visible to this day. Some 280 to 350 Confederate soldiers were instantly killed in the blast. Despite the ingenuity of the Union's plan (which had been devised by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, a former miner), the lengthy, bloody Battle of the Crater, as it came to be called, was a decisive Confederate victory. The battle was dramatized in the 2003 motion picture Cold Mountain.

Related Topics:
Union - IX Corps - Ambrose Burnside - Confederate - July 30 - 1864 - Crater - Henry Pleasants - Battle of the Crater - 2003 - Motion picture - Cold Mountain

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