The Petersburg Campaign
The Siege of Petersburg began on June 12th, 1864 and ended on April 3rd 1865, lasting a total of 292 days. To put the siege into perspective, I have included brief summaries of the Overland Campaign, the Shenandoah Campaign, and the Appomattox Campaign.
The struggle for Petersburg has no equal in the entire war. All of the more famous sieges: Vicksburg, Atlanta, and Richmond, were inferior to this siege in terms of the number of battles fought and of lives lost in its defense.
Petersburg was the lifeline of Richmond. Railroads from all over the Confederacy led into Petersburg, with one railroad linking Petersburg to Richmond. Without Petersburg, Richmond was doomed.
Grant's appointment ...
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their theater was not always encouraging. Now that he was put in charge of the entire Union effort, morale soared on the home front. However popular Grant was with the civilians, the soldiers remained skeptical. Grant may have done well against the Confederate Generals in the West, but he'd never met Bobby Lee.
After receiving his promotion and attending a few of the required festivities, Grant left for Tennessee to confer with General Sherman about the the course of the war. The basic summation was that Sherman was to go after Joe Johnston while Grant went after Lee. His plan called for a speedy termination of the war, guided by two principles of action: 1) "to use the greatest number of troops practicable," and 2) "to hammer continuously at the armed forces of the enemy and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission with the loyal section of our common country to the constitution and the laws of the ...
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as he moved, Lee began to concentrate. While Grant was trying to untangle his army from the thickets in the Wilderness, Lee struck. The fighting on the 5th consisted of two indecisive engagments between bewildered units. The next morning, Grant forced a general offensive. He was met by stiff resistance and determined counterattacks. General Longstreet was severely wounded near the spot where Jackson had fallen two years earlier. By nightfall, the conflict was still undecided. Both sides spent the next day quelling forest fires and tending to the wounded.
Union Losses: 2,246 K, 12,037W, 3,383M
Confederate Losses: Believed over 12,000 total
By now, a pattern had developed in the Army ...
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The Petersburg Campaign. (2007, October 21). Retrieved April 26, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Petersburg-Campaign/73092
"The Petersburg Campaign." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 21 Oct. 2007. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Petersburg-Campaign/73092>
"The Petersburg Campaign." Essayworld.com. October 21, 2007. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Petersburg-Campaign/73092.
"The Petersburg Campaign." Essayworld.com. October 21, 2007. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/The-Petersburg-Campaign/73092.
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