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    Petersburg

    National Battlefield Virginia

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Weldon Railroad: The 19th - 21st

August 19, 1864 (continued)

Reinforced, the Union counterattacked and by nightfall had retaken most of the ground lost that afternoon.

August 21, 1864

During August 20, as Beauregard spent the entire day organizing another attack, the Union forces dug trenches eastward to connect their fortified position to the main Federal siege lines at Jerusalem Plank Road.

Gen. A.P. Hill (CSA) personally oversaw the Confederate attack on August 21. With the new fortified positions the Union thwarted the Confederate charges.

Aftermath

With this success, Grant extended his siege lines (and his military railroad) further west, cutting off Petersburg's primary rail connection with an important supply center that was also the Confederacy's last open seaport - Wilmington, North Carolina. Lee was now forced to off-load supplies from rail cars farther south and haul them by wagon thirty miles up Boydton Plank Road to Petersburg.

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Did You Know?

Former Slaves at City Point, Virginia

Slaves who entered Union lines and came to City Point, Virginia (present day Hopewell) during the Siege of Petersburg, were typically employed unloading ships and working in the hospitals. (Petersburg National Battlefield)