Guys,
After consulting various possible sources over the past few days, I've come to the conclusion that the fight between Mahone's Division and the II Corps on June 22, 1864 during the Petersburg Campaign may be the least studied and least understood engagement between the ANV and the AotP during the entire war. See http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/va065.htm for a brief description of this action. I own the Atlas to Accompany the ORs and there is not a single map depicting the positions of Mahone or the II Corps on June 22. The U.S. Army Military History Institute's Bibliography of the Petersburg Campaign doesn't show even a single magazine or journal article on the fight. I do have Ed Bearss' unpublished manuscript covering the fighting on June 21-24, 1864, but without a map it's very tough to envision exactly what was going on. I plan to go through the reports of the various officers involved in the fighting that day which appear in the ORs (in fact, I've done some of this already), and I hope to do some blog entries covering the battle to try to better understand what went on. Before I do this, I need to figure out exactly where the units of each side were posted at the beginning of Mahone's attack in as much detail as possible, preferably down to the regimental level in as many cases as I can determine beyond reasonable doubt.
My question to the group is: does anyone know where exactly (or even vaguely) where Mahone's Division's lines and where the Union II Corps lines were at any time on June 22, 1864?
I've included some links of various quality below to a portion of the 1867 Michler map of Petersburg that covers the area where the fight took place.
Full Map (LARGE 7 MB DOWNLOAD!!!):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks18670.tif
Width of 1024 pixels (2.4 MB, tougher to see details):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks1867w1024.tif
Width of 800 pixels (1.5 MB, pretty tough to see details):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks1867w800.tif
Mahone attacked the II Corps divisions of Barlow and Mott somewhere west of the Jerusalem Plank Road (the black and white dotted line near the eastern edge of the map) and either west or southwest of the later site of Fort Davis, located on the map on the Plank Road. I just don't know exactly where. It's possible that the later Union main lines (marked in blue) or skirmish lines (the little 'u' or 'v' shaped marks out in front) also mark the position of the II Corps lines on June 22, but I haven't been able to confirm or deny that yet. I plan to consult the regimentals I own of the II Corps units that took part (not many, around 5 books going on memory) to see if I can find references to woods, houses, fields, etc. to better pin this down. If anyone knows for sure where the lines were, please enlighten me!
I've never engaged in research of this type to this extent before, and when I have delved into it I've always had maps in published books to fall back on. Needless to say, there aren't any books in this case![FONT="]
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After consulting various possible sources over the past few days, I've come to the conclusion that the fight between Mahone's Division and the II Corps on June 22, 1864 during the Petersburg Campaign may be the least studied and least understood engagement between the ANV and the AotP during the entire war. See http://www.cr.nps.gov/hps/abpp/battles/va065.htm for a brief description of this action. I own the Atlas to Accompany the ORs and there is not a single map depicting the positions of Mahone or the II Corps on June 22. The U.S. Army Military History Institute's Bibliography of the Petersburg Campaign doesn't show even a single magazine or journal article on the fight. I do have Ed Bearss' unpublished manuscript covering the fighting on June 21-24, 1864, but without a map it's very tough to envision exactly what was going on. I plan to go through the reports of the various officers involved in the fighting that day which appear in the ORs (in fact, I've done some of this already), and I hope to do some blog entries covering the battle to try to better understand what went on. Before I do this, I need to figure out exactly where the units of each side were posted at the beginning of Mahone's attack in as much detail as possible, preferably down to the regimental level in as many cases as I can determine beyond reasonable doubt.
My question to the group is: does anyone know where exactly (or even vaguely) where Mahone's Division's lines and where the Union II Corps lines were at any time on June 22, 1864?
I've included some links of various quality below to a portion of the 1867 Michler map of Petersburg that covers the area where the fight took place.
Full Map (LARGE 7 MB DOWNLOAD!!!):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks18670.tif
Width of 1024 pixels (2.4 MB, tougher to see details):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks1867w1024.tif
Width of 800 pixels (1.5 MB, pretty tough to see details):
http://www.brettschulte.net/images/PetersburgAndFiveForks1867w800.tif
Mahone attacked the II Corps divisions of Barlow and Mott somewhere west of the Jerusalem Plank Road (the black and white dotted line near the eastern edge of the map) and either west or southwest of the later site of Fort Davis, located on the map on the Plank Road. I just don't know exactly where. It's possible that the later Union main lines (marked in blue) or skirmish lines (the little 'u' or 'v' shaped marks out in front) also mark the position of the II Corps lines on June 22, but I haven't been able to confirm or deny that yet. I plan to consult the regimentals I own of the II Corps units that took part (not many, around 5 books going on memory) to see if I can find references to woods, houses, fields, etc. to better pin this down. If anyone knows for sure where the lines were, please enlighten me!
I've never engaged in research of this type to this extent before, and when I have delved into it I've always had maps in published books to fall back on. Needless to say, there aren't any books in this case![FONT="]
[/FONT]
Bringing the