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The Siege is Lifted
Published 11:02pm Friday, May 3, 2013
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Monday, May 4, 1863
Part 15: The siege is lifted
By Kermit Hobbs
Special to the News-Herald
Late in the afternoon of Thursday, April 30, 1863, Gen. James Longstreet received a message he had been expecting.
He had been ordered to pull out his entire force of Confederates from Suffolk and have them rejoin the remainder of the southern army facing battle against Union Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac.
In the days after he received that message, the widely scattered Confederate wagon trains, loaded with valuable forage, had been rolling back and crossing the Blackwater River, safely out of reach of the Union forces.
Expired Image Removed
This Confederate map is very likely the one used by Gen. James A. Longstreet to plan the withdrawal of the Confederate army from Suffolk. (Courtesy of the West Point Library, New York)
Longstreet had been carefully planning one of the most difficult of military operations — a safe and orderly withdrawal from an alert and aggressive enemy. Unknown to all but a few of the higher-ranking officers in Longstreet's army, the withdrawal was scheduled to begin at dark on the evening of May 3.
Even the heavy fighting along Providence Church Road and the lesser activities along the Chuckatuck Road and at Fort Huger that day had not interfered with Longstreet's plans.
For the rest: http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/05/03/the-siege-is-lifted/
Published 11:02pm Friday, May 3, 2013
Email Comments
Monday, May 4, 1863
Part 15: The siege is lifted
By Kermit Hobbs
Special to the News-Herald
Late in the afternoon of Thursday, April 30, 1863, Gen. James Longstreet received a message he had been expecting.
He had been ordered to pull out his entire force of Confederates from Suffolk and have them rejoin the remainder of the southern army facing battle against Union Gen. Joseph Hooker's Army of the Potomac.
In the days after he received that message, the widely scattered Confederate wagon trains, loaded with valuable forage, had been rolling back and crossing the Blackwater River, safely out of reach of the Union forces.
Expired Image Removed
This Confederate map is very likely the one used by Gen. James A. Longstreet to plan the withdrawal of the Confederate army from Suffolk. (Courtesy of the West Point Library, New York)
Longstreet had been carefully planning one of the most difficult of military operations — a safe and orderly withdrawal from an alert and aggressive enemy. Unknown to all but a few of the higher-ranking officers in Longstreet's army, the withdrawal was scheduled to begin at dark on the evening of May 3.
Even the heavy fighting along Providence Church Road and the lesser activities along the Chuckatuck Road and at Fort Huger that day had not interfered with Longstreet's plans.
For the rest: http://www.suffolknewsherald.com/2013/05/03/the-siege-is-lifted/
Bringing the