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What was the Siege of Petersburg?
The Siege of Petersburg is the popular name for the series of battles, skirmishes, and trench warfare that took place around Petersburg, Virginia in the last year of the Civil War. Petersburg was just twenty miles south of the capital of the Confederacy at Richmond and was the transportation hub for railroads coming in from the south and west. Its loss would make it impossible to hold Richmond.
Petersburg has been called the longest siege in American military history, but it was not really a siege. The Confederate supply lines were never totally cut, Lee could have marched his army away at any time, and reinforcements came and went throughout the fighting.
But Lee’s army was tied to the Confederate capital – the loss of Richmond would be the death blow to the Confederacy. Supplies were always tight, and conditions worsened as the Union army gradually cut off Southern supply lines. Combined with the static trench warfare that went on for months, it certainly felt like a siege to the men involved.
The Battle of the Crater, sketch by Alfred Waud
When was the Siege of Petersburg?
The Siege of Petersburg lasted for nine and a half months, from June 15, 1864 to April 2, 1865.
Where was the Siege of Petersburg?
The Siege of Petersburg was fought around the city of Petersburg, Virginia, a manufacturing center and transportation hub on the south side of the Appomattox River about twenty miles south of Richmond. Petersburg was the second largest city in Virginia and the seventh largest city in the Confederacy. Three railroads linked Petersburg with the rest of the Confederacy to the south and west, a fourth led to City Point, at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers, and a fifth led to Richmond.
How many men fought in the Siege of Petersburg?
Troop strength varied throughout the siege as reinforcements arrived, casualties were taken, and detachments were sent away. At end of siege in April of 1865 there there were about 110,000 Union and 50,000 Confederate soldiers in the trenches. See “The Armies in the Siege of Petersburg”
Who commanded the armies in the SIege of Petersburg?
The Federal forces at Petersburg belonged to three armies– the Army of the Potomac under Major General George G. Meade, the Army of the James under Major Generals Benjamin Butler and Edward O.C. Ord, and the Army of the Shenandoah under Major General Philip Sheridan. All were under the overall command of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of all United States Armies, who made his headquarters for much of the siege at CIty Point.
Two Confederate armies fought at Petersburg. The Department of North Carolina and Southern Virginia under Lieutenant General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard held the Petersburg lines alone from June 15 through June 17 until the arrival of the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee.
How many casualties were there in the Siege of Petersburg?
Estimates are around 42,000 Union and 28,000 Confederate casualties.
Why did the Siege of Petersburg happen?
The Siege of Petersburg was the result of Grant’s inability to break through properly manned and constructed Confederate defences. After his lopsided defeat at Cold Harbor he used a tactic that had worked several times in May of 1864 and moved around Lee’s right flank. Because it was a move away from Richmond and crossed the major waterway of the James River it took Lee by surprise. Grant’s spearheads almost broke through the thinly held defenses around Petersburg but the sheer exhaustion of the Union troops and command problems allowed Confederate reinforcements to arrive and establish, yet again, a defensive line that would turn away any attack.
Although Grant still tried a major assault at the Battle of the Crater, most of the rest of the activity during the siege was repeated attempts to get around the Confederate flank and cut the supply lines to the city.
Who won the Siege of Petersburg?
Ultimately, the North. In the end Grant was successfull at getting around Lee’s flank at the Battle of Five Forks. Lee’s defenses collapsed and he was forced to abandon the city.
What were the results of the Siege of Petersburg?
The first result was the abandonment of the Confederate capital at Richmond. Confederate naval ships on the James River were burned or blown up, military stores in the city were put to the torch, President Davis and his cabinet were evacuated by train, and most of its defenders began to march west in the hope of joining up with Lee’s army.
Lee’s army was also forced to head west, hoping to carry on the fight in North Carolina or the mountains of western Virginia. They were badly outnumbered and no longer protected by fortifications. The men were hungry and exhausted and the starving draft horses were too weak to pull the guns and supply wagons. Union forces were in close pursuit and were moving up to cut off their retreat. After a sharp fight at Sailer’s Creek a third of Lee’s army were surrounded and surrendered.
Three days later at Appomattox Court House strong Union forces managed to get ahead of the rest of Lee’s men. Surrounded and outnumbered, they surrendered. It was not the end of the war, but it was the end of all hope for the Confederacy.
Other Petersburg Facts
The operations at Petersburg covered roughly 576 square miles. Including the defensive lines around Richmond and at Bermuda Hundred the fortifications stretched 37 miles.
General Grant launched nine distinct offensives at Petersburg, usually striking simultaneously north and south of the James River.
Five railroads connected Petersburg with points south and west in the Confederacy. By the end of 1864 only one railroad was still open, the South Side Railroad.
On June 18, 1864 the First Maine Heavy Artillery sustained the largest regimental loss of the civil war, losing 632 men in ten minutes.
After Pennsylvania coal miners dug a 510 foot tunnel, on July 30, 1864 8,000 pounds of powder were set off, killing 300 South Carolinians and forming The Crater.
Confederate spies made numerous attempts to sabotage City Point. They almost succeeded using a time bomb planted on a munitions ship in August 1864.