Petersburg/Richmond 2 Petersburg questions

[MikeyB]

Hi everyone,
Two quick questions for the experts.
1) My understanding is at the very beginning of the Petersburg campaign, AoP (Wright I think?) and AoJ troops had the opportunity to break through Confederate lines while they were undermanned by Beauregard while the majority of the ANV was still facing Grant further north. When Grant eventually broke Lee's lines, it spelled the beginning of the end for the ANV. My question is, if Union leaders had shown a bit more aggressiveness and broken through before Lee's troops re-deployed, would this have also been the beginning of the end? Or did Lee still have viable options to continue a credible resistance? With the Valley still under CSA control, was the war far from over in this breakthrough scenario?
2) During the Peninsula Campaign, we always hear about McClellan's heavy siege trains that were about to light up Yorktown before the Confederates withdrew. They sound pretty impressive and powerful. Where were these heavy siege trains during the Petersburg campaign? Or is the answer, they were there, but the entrenchments afforded much more protection than people were anticipating?

Thanks for your replies,
mike

 

[ErnieMac]

Hi everyone,
Two quick questions for the experts.
1) My understanding is at the very beginning of the Petersburg campaign, AoP (Wright I think?) and AoJ troops had the opportunity to break through Confederate lines while they were undermanned by Beauregard while the majority of the ANV was still facing Grant further north. When Grant eventually broke Lee's lines, it spelled the beginning of the end for the ANV. My question is, if Union leaders had shown a bit more aggressiveness and broken through before Lee's troops re-deployed, would this have also been the beginning of the end? Or did Lee still have viable options to continue a credible resistance? With the Valley still under CSA control, was the war far from over in this breakthrough scenario?
2) During the Peninsula Campaign, we always hear about McClellan's heavy siege trains that were about to light up Yorktown before the Confederates withdrew. They sound pretty impressive and powerful. Where were these heavy siege trains during the Petersburg campaign? Or is the answer, they were there, but the entrenchments afforded much more protection than people were anticipating?

Thanks for your replies,
mike

1. The attack on the Petersburg lines to which you refer was made by MG William F. Smith and the Eighteenth Corps, AoJ, on June 15, 1864. Smith was to be supported by MG Winfield Scott Hancock's Second Corp, AoP, but owing to a series of miscommunications, failed to arrive on time to be of help. Smith drove the Confederates from the Dimmock Line, but stopped short of Petersburg. The question you ask is a good one and one that I've pondered myself. There's no doubt the ANV was much stronger in June, 1864, than it was in April, 1865. Sherman was still well outside Atlanta. Lee would have been in a much better position to plan an organized withdrawl into western Virginia and North Carolina.

2. Grant did have a siege train. Wiki has an article titled Siege artillery in the American Civil War that gives a brief synopsis. Note that earthen field works negated the effects of rifled artillery that worked well at Fort Pulaski and Charleston. Mortars were most effective at Petersburg. I suspect you've heard of the Dictator, the railcar mounted 13" seacoast mortar used during the siege. The Federal siege train was commanded by Bvt. BG Henry Larcom Abbot during most of the siege.

 

[DaveBrt]

Hi everyone,
Two quick questions for the experts.
1) My understanding is at the very beginning of the Petersburg campaign, AoP (Wright I think?) and AoJ troops had the opportunity to break through Confederate lines while they were undermanned by Beauregard while the majority of the ANV was still facing Grant further north. When Grant eventually broke Lee's lines, it spelled the beginning of the end for the ANV. My question is, if Union leaders had shown a bit more aggressiveness and broken through before Lee's troops re-deployed, would this have also been the beginning of the end? Or did Lee still have viable options to continue a credible resistance? With the Valley still under CSA control, was the war far from over in this breakthrough scenario?

Mike,

Your assumption appears to be that with Beauregard's line broken, Petersburg would have been captured. If that is your belief, I agree with you.

With Petersburg captured, Lee would have had to try to hold the line of the Appomattox River; failure to hold that line would have resulted in the short Siege of Richmond. Lee's problem was that his supply line was south from Richmond to Danville to Greensboro to Charlotte to Columbia etc. The Virginia & Tennessee RR was not connected to any source of supply and north central and northwest central Virginia had been unable to support Lee for the past 2 years (there are many calls by Lee for corn from southwestern Georgia to prevent the starvation of his horses, need for food was a reason for the Gettysburg campaign, and the bread riots in Richmond confirm the human food shortage).

So almost all supply would have to come up the single RR line (the Richmond & Danville RR and the just completed Piedmont RR) from North Carolina farms, southwestern Georgia farms and the blockade runner ports). Even after six months of improving this road (June through December '64) it still could not support Lee in the winter of '65 -- so to think it could support him in the summer of '64, without those improvements, is not realistic at all. And that assumes that Lee is able to protect that road as it runs north past the western edge of the Union forces.

I think the capture of Petersburg, then Richmond/Lee, then Atlanta, would have ended the war in the fall of '64. The Confederacy would have had no major army, no capital, no major city, no leader, and no hope.

 

[Jamieva]

Grant made the mistake of relying on the II Corps to help Smith make the attack. By this point Hancock and his corps were completely used up, but he didn't trust anyone else. He picked the wrong troops and leaders for the attack, otherwise they most likely capture Petersburg on the initial attack and there is never the 10 month investment.