- 26 Mar 2023 14:29
#15269506
March 26, Sunday
Lee writes Davis of the failure at Fort Stedman yesterday: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee is preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond and pull back westward to attempt to join Johnston in North Carolina. Somehow, he has to move his 57,000 remaining men safely out of their trenches and off to the southwest without becoming ensnared in a general engagement with Grant’s 125,000 troops. From Petersburg, Lee knows he has to follow the Southside Railroad—its battered rolling stock will be needed if he is to get everyone and everything away—to its junction with the Richmond & Danville Railroad at Burke Station. From there he can follow the Danville line to the southwest and to Johnston. If he waits too long, Grant’s legions will swarm all over him.
On this same Sunday that Lee announces it is time to go, the advantage in numbers already enjoyed by the Federals is increased; Major General Philip H. Sheridan rides in from the Shenandoah Valley, President Lincoln watching Sheridan’s men cross the James while in his junket to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Sheridan defeated the last remnants of Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley at Waynesborough on the 2nd. He went on to destroy the railroads around Lynchburg and then headed toward Richmond. Feeling that the war is nearing its end, he wants his cavalry “to be in at the death.” His arrival now at Petersburg gives Grant an even larger force with which to extend the lines and thus further thin out Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Grant is delighted by Sheridan’s combativeness and impressed by his willingness to give up his independent department (the vast Middle Military Division) and revert to his former assignment as commander of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry. The corps now consists of three divisions: the two Sheridan has brought back from the Valley, now commanded by Brigadier Generals Thomas C. Devin and George A. Custer, both of whom report to Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt, and the 3,300-man division that had stayed at Petersburg, now led by Major General George Crook. Grant will assign the cavalry a principal role—and the status of an independent army—in the impending campaign.
For more than a month, Grant has been expecting Lee to attempt a juncture with Johnston, and he has planned a massive movement to prevent it. As a preliminary, General Ord is to pull one of his two corps—the XXIV, led by Major General John Gibbon—and Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie’s cavalry division out of the Federal lines north of the James River. They are to march south behind the position held by IX Corps and then west behind VI Corps to the Federal left, southwest of Petersburg. There, Ord’s 15,000 men are to spread themselves thin and relieve from duty in the trenches both II Corps and V Corps, thus freeing the 35,000 men of those corps for Grant’s proposed maneuver.
The field of operations envisioned by Grant is a rectangle southwest of Petersburg that is ten miles across, east to west, and eight miles deep. It is bounded on the north by the Southside Railroad; on the east by the Weldon Railroad; on the south by the Vaughan road to the village of Dinwiddie Court House; and on the west by a road leading north from Dinwiddie to the Southside Railroad—by way of a crossroads called Five Forks. The sector is cut diagonally by the Boydton Plank Road between Petersburg and Dinwiddie and by Hatcher’s Run, flowing northwest to southeast. Confederate entrenchments extend into this area from Petersburg, running southwest along the Boydton Plank Road to its crossing at Hatcher’s Run—the center of the rectangle. From there the White Oak road leads west to Five Forks; the fortifications follow it for two miles, then curve north to touch Hatcher’s Run again. The Federal left, despite frequent attempts to extend it westward, is still located on the Vaughan road where it crosses Hatcher’s Run, four miles southeast of the Confederate right.
When relieved by Ord’s men, General Warren’s V Corps, followed by General Humphrey’s II Corps, is to march five miles west along the Vaughan road until the troops are beyond the Confederate flank. From there the infantry is to press north toward the enemy line. They are not to attack it, however; the object is to flank the Confederates, forcing them to come out of their trenches to protect their rear and the Southside Railroad. Most important, Grant emphasizes, the infantry is to ensure the success of Sheridan’s cavalry. The plan calls for the cavalry to swing below and beyond the moving infantry, to Dinwiddie Court House, then north toward Five Forks, working behind the Confederate line. What happens next will depend on Lee. In the unlikely event that he doesn’t come out of his lines and fight, Sheridan is to destroy both the Southside and Danville Railroads around Burkeville, cutting Lee’s last supply line and escape route.
On the Mobile, Alabama, front, skirmishing erupts as Union troops push in nearer Spanish Fort. Other skirmishing occurs at Muddy Creek, Alabama, and Federals enter Pollard. In Kentucky there is a skirmish in Bath County and a four-day Union expedition in Louisiana from Bonnet Carré to the Amite River.
Lee writes Davis of the failure at Fort Stedman yesterday: “I fear now it will be impossible to prevent a junction between Grant and Sherman, nor do I deem it prudent that this army should maintain its position until the latter shall approach too near.” Lee is preparing to give up Petersburg and Richmond and pull back westward to attempt to join Johnston in North Carolina. Somehow, he has to move his 57,000 remaining men safely out of their trenches and off to the southwest without becoming ensnared in a general engagement with Grant’s 125,000 troops. From Petersburg, Lee knows he has to follow the Southside Railroad—its battered rolling stock will be needed if he is to get everyone and everything away—to its junction with the Richmond & Danville Railroad at Burke Station. From there he can follow the Danville line to the southwest and to Johnston. If he waits too long, Grant’s legions will swarm all over him.
On this same Sunday that Lee announces it is time to go, the advantage in numbers already enjoyed by the Federals is increased; Major General Philip H. Sheridan rides in from the Shenandoah Valley, President Lincoln watching Sheridan’s men cross the James while in his junket to the main fighting front at Petersburg. Sheridan defeated the last remnants of Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley at Waynesborough on the 2nd. He went on to destroy the railroads around Lynchburg and then headed toward Richmond. Feeling that the war is nearing its end, he wants his cavalry “to be in at the death.” His arrival now at Petersburg gives Grant an even larger force with which to extend the lines and thus further thin out Lee’s already numerically inadequate defenders. Grant is delighted by Sheridan’s combativeness and impressed by his willingness to give up his independent department (the vast Middle Military Division) and revert to his former assignment as commander of the Army of the Potomac’s cavalry. The corps now consists of three divisions: the two Sheridan has brought back from the Valley, now commanded by Brigadier Generals Thomas C. Devin and George A. Custer, both of whom report to Brevet Major General Wesley Merritt, and the 3,300-man division that had stayed at Petersburg, now led by Major General George Crook. Grant will assign the cavalry a principal role—and the status of an independent army—in the impending campaign.
For more than a month, Grant has been expecting Lee to attempt a juncture with Johnston, and he has planned a massive movement to prevent it. As a preliminary, General Ord is to pull one of his two corps—the XXIV, led by Major General John Gibbon—and Brigadier General Ranald Mackenzie’s cavalry division out of the Federal lines north of the James River. They are to march south behind the position held by IX Corps and then west behind VI Corps to the Federal left, southwest of Petersburg. There, Ord’s 15,000 men are to spread themselves thin and relieve from duty in the trenches both II Corps and V Corps, thus freeing the 35,000 men of those corps for Grant’s proposed maneuver.
The field of operations envisioned by Grant is a rectangle southwest of Petersburg that is ten miles across, east to west, and eight miles deep. It is bounded on the north by the Southside Railroad; on the east by the Weldon Railroad; on the south by the Vaughan road to the village of Dinwiddie Court House; and on the west by a road leading north from Dinwiddie to the Southside Railroad—by way of a crossroads called Five Forks. The sector is cut diagonally by the Boydton Plank Road between Petersburg and Dinwiddie and by Hatcher’s Run, flowing northwest to southeast. Confederate entrenchments extend into this area from Petersburg, running southwest along the Boydton Plank Road to its crossing at Hatcher’s Run—the center of the rectangle. From there the White Oak road leads west to Five Forks; the fortifications follow it for two miles, then curve north to touch Hatcher’s Run again. The Federal left, despite frequent attempts to extend it westward, is still located on the Vaughan road where it crosses Hatcher’s Run, four miles southeast of the Confederate right.
When relieved by Ord’s men, General Warren’s V Corps, followed by General Humphrey’s II Corps, is to march five miles west along the Vaughan road until the troops are beyond the Confederate flank. From there the infantry is to press north toward the enemy line. They are not to attack it, however; the object is to flank the Confederates, forcing them to come out of their trenches to protect their rear and the Southside Railroad. Most important, Grant emphasizes, the infantry is to ensure the success of Sheridan’s cavalry. The plan calls for the cavalry to swing below and beyond the moving infantry, to Dinwiddie Court House, then north toward Five Forks, working behind the Confederate line. What happens next will depend on Lee. In the unlikely event that he doesn’t come out of his lines and fight, Sheridan is to destroy both the Southside and Danville Railroads around Burkeville, cutting Lee’s last supply line and escape route.
On the Mobile, Alabama, front, skirmishing erupts as Union troops push in nearer Spanish Fort. Other skirmishing occurs at Muddy Creek, Alabama, and Federals enter Pollard. In Kentucky there is a skirmish in Bath County and a four-day Union expedition in Louisiana from Bonnet Carré to the Amite River.
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke
—Edmund Burke