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"...a mere question of time"

"The Key To Taking Richmond Is Petersburg."

Grant and Lee were well-matched adversaries who skillfully led their troops against each other in the last year of the Civil War. Grant knew how to exploit an opponent's weaknesses to best advantage. Lee's great strengths were his aggressiveness and his ability to asses an opponent's capabilities.

That's what General Grant believed when his forces began arriving at the eastern environs of the city in mid-June 1864. It was the four railroad lines and key roadways that made Petersburg important. If these could be cut, then the city could no longer provide Richmond with much-needed supplies, equipment, and subsistence. Many believed that if Richmond fell, the war would beaver. Others, however, like Grant, knew that only when Lee's army was eliminated would the war come to an end.

In a grim 10-month struggle - the longest siege in American warfare - Grant's army gradually but relentlessly encircled Petersburg and cut Lee's supply lines from the south. For the Confederates it was 10 months of desperately hanging on, hoping the people of the North would tire of the war. For soldiers of both armies it was 10 months of rifle bullets, artillery, and mortar shells, relieved only by rear-area tedium: drill and more drill, salt pork and corn meal, burned beans and bad coffee.

Although Grant's first attempts to capture Petersburg from the east on June 15-18 failed miserably and cost him 10,000 men, his soldiers did manage to cut two of the railroads leading into the city and gain control of several roads. In August he struck out to the south and west against the Weldon Railroad. After 3 days of fierce fighting in brutal heat, Union troops were astride the iron rails near Globe Tavern. Several days later, on August 25, Lee's Confederates scored a minor victory at Ream's Station, 5 miles south of Globe Tavern, but failed to break the Federal hold on the railroad.

By October, Grant had moved 3 miles west of the Weldon Railroad and the noose around Petersburg tightened. The approach of winter brought a general halt to activities. Still there was the everyday skirmishing, sniper fire, and mortar shelling. By early February 1865, Lee had only 60,000 cold and hungry soldiers in the trenches to oppose Grant's well-equipped force of 110,000. On February 5-7, Grant extended his lines westward to Hatcher's Run and forced Lee to lengthen his own thinly stretched defenses. Federal supplies rattled continuously over the newly completed U.S. Military Railroad from City Point to the front.

By mid-March it was apparent to Lee that Grant's superior force would either get around the Confederate right flank or pierce the line somewhere along its 37-mile length. The Southern commander hoped to break the Union stranglehold on Petersburg by attacking Grant at Fort Stedman. Plans were to breach the Union line, hold the gap, and gain access to Grant's military railroad a short distance beyond. If it worked, Grant might have to relinquish positions to the west, and Lee could shorten his own lines. On March 25, Confederates overpowered Fort Stedman only to be crushed by a Union counterattack.

With victory near, Grant unleashed Gen. Philip H. Sheridan at Five Forks on April 1. His objective: the Southside Railroad. Sheridan smashed the Confederate forces under George Pickett and gained access to the tracks beyond. 0n April 2, Grant ordered an all-out assault, and Lee's right flank crumbled. A Homeric defense at Confederate Fort Gregg saved Lee from possible Street fighting in Petersburg. On the night of April 2, Lee evacuated Petersburg.

April 3-5, 1865

As General Lee withdrew his Army of Northern Virginia from the trenches protecting Petersburg and Richmond, he divided his troops in three main columns, which were soon joined by a smaller contingent escaping from the Five Forks Battlefields. His plan was to regroup these forces at Amelia Court House, resupply his army and travel to North Carolina, where he could join forces with Confederate General Johnston's Army of Tennessee.

Because of rain-soaked and swollen streams, travel was difficult, and the majority of the wagon trains from Richmond were caught and destroyed by the Union Army. When Lee's troops finally arrived at the courthouse, the supplies scheduled to meet the converging troops never appeared, forcing Lee to waste a day while his men foraged for food through the countryside. This delay and inability to find food gave General Sheridan's Union cavalry enough time to entrench themselves seven miles below Amelia, along the railroad at Jetersville, blocking Lee's route south.

Finding his direct route to North Carolina blocked, Lee ordered his columns to detour around the union Army and push westward along the South Side Railroad to Farmville, where supply trains from Lynchburg awaited.

April 6, 1865
The Battles' Of Sailor's Creek:

The next day, still bearing in a westerly direction while pressed by Union cavalry and the infantry of the Sixth and Second Corps, Lee rearranged his marching order to gain greater mobility and protection of the wagons. This new order consisted of Generals Longstreet, Anderson and Ewell, the supply wagons and Gen. Gordon as the rearguard. Lee rode with Longsteet's command.

Lieutenant General James Longstreet Commanding General, lst Corps Confederate Army of Northern Virginia

Longstreet's physical characteristics seemed to match his personality: solid and unyielding. One fellow officer observed, "There is a man that cannot be stampeded." Patient and methodical, Longstreet measured the odds, and struck when success seemed most likely. Longstreet was a weak strategist and did not perform well in independent command, but he was committed to the tactical defensive and, as one historian wrote, "He unquestionably had no superior in either army as a battlefield tactician."

Longstreet entered the infantry after West Point, was wounded at Chapultepec while carrying a battle flag toward the Mexican position, and received the rank of Major by 1861. He commanded a Brigade at 1st Manassas and by October 1861, he was promoted to division command. Longstreet was given independent command of two divisions in February 1863, but it ended in failure and he rejoined Lee's army after Chancellorville.

Lee and Longstreet seemed to be at "crossed purposes" at Gettysburg. On July 2nd, Longstreet urged Lee to move the army south, place it between Meade's army and Washington, and fight a defensive battle. Lee, on the other hand saw great value in maintaining the initiative and ordered Longstreet to attack the Union left flank where it was. Longstreet's assault took place at 4:00 p.m. after being delayed for various reasons. Finally, Longstreet's corps made a vigorous assault, but ultimately failed to dislodge the Union line. Longstreet, the only veteran corps commander in Lee's army at Gettysburg, was chosen to command the assault on day 3, later known as Pickett's Charge, and although he argued against the frontal attack on the Union center, he did his duty and personally directed the assault.

After Gettysburg, Longstreet was temporarily sent west. He fought well at Chickamauga, but met defeat at Knoxville, TN. On May 6, 1864, back in Virginia, his own men accidentally wounded him during the Battle of the Wilderness. He returned to duty in October and was present at Appomattox. After the war, he became a Republican and took a job with the Grant administration, which caused him to fall out of favor in the South. Widely criticized for alleged obstinacy at Gettysburg, Longstreet defended his reputation against countless accusations that he had caused Lee to lose the battle, and by extension, the war. His acrimonious memoirs were published in 1896.

Within a short time, several columns found it difficult to keep up with the marching pace and quickly became engulfed in the mire of the bottomlands at Little Sailor's Creek. Unaware that their lines were split, Lee and Longstreet marched onto Rice, Va. But with Confederate lines strung out along roads ankle-deep in mud, the Union cavalry struck at the wagons, forcing Anderson's men to stop and fight. In a desperate attempt to save the supplies, Ewell detoured the wagon train down Jamestown Road to cross Sailor's Creek further downstream. Anderson and Ewell went forward while Gordon followed the wagons west.

Anderson soon found his advance blocked by federal cavalry at Marshall's Crossroads. His initial attack on the Union cavalry was successful, but eventually his line was overrun, causing him to surrender.

Ewell, while crossing Sailor's Creek, saw blue infantry, supported by artillery, forming in lines at the Hillsman House to his rear. Under General Wright, the Union troops moved across the waist-deep creek and began their assault on Ewell's line. Confederate infantry, artillerymen, sailors, clerks and marines mounted a countercharge that forced the Union line back across the creek. But when Union artillery fired canister at the Confederate troops, Wrights' forces were able to counter attack, enveloping Ewell's troops and forcing them to surrender.

Meanwhile, General Gordon's troops and the detoured wagon train became bogged down at the "double bridges" crossing over the confluence of Big and Little Sailor's Creek. Union troops under General Humphrys attacked Gordon's forces in a sharp, bloody encounter. By nightfall, the battle had ended, with 300 wagons and 1,700 men captured. As Confederates fled these three bloody battles toward Rice's Station across Big Sailor's Creek, General Lee remarked, "My God! Has the army been dissolved?"

By dusk, the battles of Sailor's Creek were over. Lee had lost more than 7,700 men and eight generals, the largest number of men to ever surrender in a single action on this continent. With such a drastic reduction in troops and supplies, Lee's situation was critical. Seventy-two hours later, Lee surrendered at Appomattox. Lee told a group of his soldiers, "I have done my best for you. My heart is too full to say more."

Albert Castel. The Guerrilla War 1861-1865. Civil War Times Illustrated. Gettysburg, PA. 1974.

Play Movie Trailer

Gettysburg (1993) The bloody, three-day Civil War battle that took place in July of 1863 and saw 53,000 lives lost is depicted in spectacular style in this epic film marked by incredible fighting sequences and a memorable cast that includes Tom Berenger, Martin Sheen, Stephen Lang, Jeff Daniels and Richard Jordan. Based on the acclaimed book "The Killer Angels."

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