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NATIONAL PARK SERVICE HISTORY SERIES
CAMPAIGN FOR
PETERSBURG
RICHARD WAYNE LYKES
National Park Service
U.S. Department of the Interior
Washington, D.C. 1970
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents,
U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington, D.C. 20402—Price $1
CONTENTS
- PROLOGUE 2
- UNION STRATEGY 1864 5
- STRATEGIC PETERSBURG 7
- BATTLE OF PETERSBURG 10
- FIRST UNION ATTEMPT TO ENCIRCLE PETERSBURG 17
- BATTLE OF THE CRATER 24
- FIGHT FOR THE WELDON RAILROAD 36
- UNION ENCIRCLEMENT CONTINUES 42
- LEE’S LAST GAMBLE 58
- FIVE FORKS: BEGINNING OF THE END 64
- FALL OF PETERSBURG AND RICHMOND 68
In the final year of theCivil War in the East, thefighting focused uponPetersburg, an importanttransportation center forRichmond and Lee’s army.For 10 bloody months ofcombat, both from behindprepared positions andalong the main routes ofsupply, Lee’s raggedConfederates held the city(shown here from north ofthe Appomattox River)against Grant’s numericallysuperior Federals. OnApril 2-3, 1865, Lee wasforced to abandon bothPetersburg and Richmond.One week later, hesurrendered the Army ofNorthern Virginia atAppomattox Court House,dooming the South’s bidfor independent existence.
PROLOGUE
By June 1864, when the siege of Petersburg began,the Civil War had lain heavily on both the North andthe South for more than 3 years. Most of the fighting inthe East during this period had taken place on the rollingVirginia countryside between the opposing capitalsof Washington and Richmond, only 110 miles apart,and all of it had failed to end the war and bring peace tothe land. Various generals had been placed in commandof the Union’s mighty Army of the Potomac and hadfaced Gen. Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.So far not one had succeeded in destroying Lee’s armyor in capturing Richmond.
Perhaps Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan had come theclosest to success when, in the late spring and earlysummer of 1862, his Northern troops had threatenedthe Confederate capital, only to be repulsed on its outskirts.The other Northern commanders who followed