Petersburg, Virginia, was a key Civil War railroad junction that connected supplies from points south to Richmond and the troops protecting the Confederate capital. For nine months, the armies of Ulysses Grant and Robert E. Lee battled for control of Petersburg.
In late March of 1865, Grant decided to make one more push against the town. Skirmishes and probes were underway by March 25. Grant defeated the Confederates at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1. And then he ordered a huge attack on April 2. Imagine thousands of men engaging in a bayonet charge across a half mile of open ground, running straight into a defensive line that was considered impregnable by Grant’s own staff.
 |
| Edward Alexander |
And Petersburg would fall. Lee’s army was forced to retreat to the southwest, in the hope that it still might eventually connect with Gen. William Johnston’s army, chased by Sherman in the Carolinas. Lee’s army finally reached Appomattox.
Dawn of Victory: Breakthrough at Petersburg March 25-April 2, 1865 by Edward Alexander is another volume of the Emerging Civil War Series of significant battles and events of the Civil War. Using text, maps, photographs, and illustrations, Alexander tells an enthralling story of the men who fought the Battle of Petersburg and why it was so critical to the defeat of Lee’s army and the Confederacy.
Alexander is a contributing author at Emerging Civil War. He has worked as a park ranger and historian at the Richmond National Battlefield Park and the Pamplin Historical Park. He currently lives in Richmond, Virginia, and works as a cartographer under the business Make Me a Map, LLC.
Related:
Attack at Daylight and Whip Them: The Battle of Shiloh, April 6-7, 1862 by Gregory Mertz.
The Last Road North: A Guide to the Gettysburg Campaign, 1863 by Robert Orrison and Dan Welch.
Hell Itself: The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-7, 1864 by Chris Mackowski.
No comments:
Post a Comment