NPS At a place named Cold Harbor, just six miles outside of Richmond, Virginia and north of the James River, General Grant (USA) decided to end his six week effort to take the Confederate capital by frontal assault. Having lost thousands of men in direct attacks on fortified Confederate positions at Cold Harbor, Grant took a new approach. After sitting in those lines for several days, General Lee's (CSA) forces awoke one morning to find Grant had pulled his 100,000 man army out of their positions and disappeared. Though not overlooked by Lee, Grant had committed to taking Richmond by cutting off its supply base - Petersburg. By boats and a pontoon bridge the Union troops crossed the James River in force and on June 15, 1864, Grant had his lead men poised to take Petersburg. During this time Lee was still not convinced of Grant's main objective and kept most of his army around Richmond. This left General Beauregard (CSA) with a small force to man the walled defenses around the city, the Dimmock Line, in order to fend off the brunt of the Union offensive. June 15, 1864After crossing the Appomattox River upstream from City Point, Gen. Smith's (USA) XVIII Corps (14,000 men) advanced and defeated a small Confederate force in a two-hour long morning battle just three miles east of the main Petersburg defenses. Then after nearly ten hours of scouting and organizing, the Union soldiers attacked Beauregard's forces (2,200) at 7 pm. In two hours of fighting the Union opened up a two mile-long hole in the Dimmock Line. At 9 pm., with the Confederates falling back, the US II Corp arrived (16,000) but Smith decided to wait until the 16th to resume the attack. June 17, 1864Most of the Union effort was focused just south of the fighting on June 15th and their poorly coordinated attacks offset the numerical advantages of the Northern forces by allowing Beauregard to concentrate his troops where needed. Beauregard had been busy telegraphing Lee for the last several days for support from the main Confederate force near Richmond. Lee was then convinced of Grant's real intentions and rushed reinforcements to Petersburg. June 18, 1864On the night of June 17th, under the cover of darkness, the Confederates fell back to an area approximately 1/2 mile closer to Petersburg and, after midnight, began building a more permanent and formidable line of trenches. These trenches would connect the part of the Dimmock Line they still controlled to the banks of the Appomattox River on the east side of Petersburg. The pre-dawn maneuver by the Southern soldiers disrupted the Union Army's plans for a morning attack. Much like the previous two days, the Union attack failed again due to poor cohesion among the various Corps. The AftermathFrom the lowliest of privates to the upper echelon of both armies, it was obvious to all that with the Union's failure on the 15th to take advantage of it initial success, its subsequent poorly-coordinated attacks over the next three days, and the heroic defense put up by Beauregard's forces until Lee arrived, the armies were facing, for them, a new style of fighting - siege warfare. Return to Battle of the Siege listing |
Last updated: November 26, 2023