The Petersburg Campaign: June 1864-April 1865

559 Pages·1993·4.7 MB·English

by  John Horn

The Petersburg Campaign : June 1864-April
title:
1865 Great Campaigns
author: Horn, John.
publisher: Combined Publishing
isbn10 | asin: 0938289284
print isbn13: 9780938289289
ebook isbn13: 9780585193908
language: English
Petersburg (Va.)--History--Siege, 1864-
subject
1865.
publication date: 1993
lcc: E476.93.H68 1993eb
ddc: 973.7/37
Petersburg (Va.)--History--Siege, 1864-
subject:
1865.
Page 1
GREAT CAMPAIGNS
The Petersburg Campaign
Page 2
GREAT CAMPAIGN SERIES
The Atlanta Campaign
The Chancellorsville Campaign
The Gettysburg Campaign
The Little Bighorn Campaign
The Peninsula Campaign
The Petersburg Campaign
The Philadelphia Campaign
The Waterloo Campaign
The Wilderness Campaign
Page 3
GREAT CAMPAIGNS
The Petersburg Campaign
June 1864 - April 1865
John Horn
COMBINED BOOKS
Pennsylvania
Page 4
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
Combined Books, Inc., is dedicated to publishing books of distinction
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Copyright © 1993 by John Horn All rights reserved. No part of this
publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electrical, mechanical or
otherwise without first seeking the written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Horn, John (John Edward)
The Petersburg campaign : June 1864-April 1865 / by John Horn.
p. cm. (Great campaigns)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-938289-28-4 : $22.95
1. Petersburg (Va.)HistorySiege, 1864-1865. I. Title. II. Series.
E476.93.H68 1993
973.7'37dc20 93-
13890
CIP
Combined Books Edition 1 2 3 4 5
First published in the USA in 1993 by Combined Books and
distributed in North America by Stackpole Books, Inc., 5067 Ritter
Road, Mechanicsburg, PA 17055 and internationally by Greenhill
Books, Lionel Leventhal Ltd., 1 Russell Gardens, London NW11 9NN
Printed in Hong Kong.
Page 5
To Matt and Helen Kelley of Powhatan
County, Virginia
Page 6
Acknowledgments
As far as I am concerned, anyone who reads and comments on
somebody else's manuscript deserves a medal. If I could, I would pin
decorations on (in alphabetical order) Ed Bearss, John Hendron,
Bryce Suderow and Andy Trudeau. Scarcely a page of this book failed
to benefit from their suggestions and corrections. Any remaining
errors are entirely my responsibility.
Reading a manuscript is one thing. Deciphering a microfilm copy of
an ancient dairy scrawled in pencil and later retraced in ink is above
and beyond the call of duty. Without Bill Zielinski's time and effort,
George S. Bernard's war diaries would have remained largely
untranscribable. Thanks, again Bill.
Thanks are also due Mrs. Alexander Hamilton for permission to
publish the excerpts from Bernard's diaries, and to the staff of the
University of Virginia's Alderman Library for their assistance in
microfilming.
Stylistic Note
I have generally referred to the various corps, divisions and brigades
of both sides by the surnames of their commanders. This was the
ordinary practice in the Confederate armies, but not with the Union
forces. To distinguish between the official unit names and my own
unofficial designations, I have capitalized the unit name in the former
case but not in the latter. Some Confederate brigades retained the
name of a former commander. Wright's Brigade, for example, was for
a short time led by Brigadier General Victor J.B. Girardey. Another,
the Texas Brigade, was known by its nickname. A number of Union
brigades are also referred to by their nicknames: the Maryland
Brigade of the V Corps and the Vermont Brigade of the VI Corps.
To further simplify matters several ahistorical conventions have been
adopted in this work:
1. The identities of Union units are in italics.
2. Union Army corps have been designated with Roman numerals.
3. Times have been rendered on a 24-hour basis.
Page 7
Contents
Preface to the Series 9
I. War Comes to the Cockade City 11
II. The Battle of Old Men and Young Boys 35
III. The Opening Assaults 47
IV. War Against the Railroads 75
V. The Battle of the Crater 97
VI. The Destruction of the Weldon Railroad 123
VII. Fort Harrison and Peebles Farm 155
VIII. Fair Oaks and Burgess Mill 175
IX. The Apple Jack Raid 189
X. The Battle of Hatcher's Run 199
XI. The Battle of Fort Stedman 209
XII. Five Forks and the Fall of Petersburg 219
Guide for the Interested Reader 251
Orders of Battle 259
Index 288