by A. Wilson Greene
Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina, 2025. Pp. xvi, 698.
Maps, notes, biblio., index. $45.00. ISBN: 1469684810
The Siege of Petersburg, from August through October of 1864
In this, the second of a three volume work on the Petersburg campaign, award winning historian Greene covers Ulysses S. Grant’s 4th, 5th, and 6th attempts to break Robert E. Lee’s defenses around the besieged city, from early August through late October 1864.
The three offensives examined include major battles south of the Appomattox River and north of the James. Greene argues that there was a significant change in Grant's grand strategy during this period. Avoiding his earlier attempts to punch his way into Petersburg, he undertook to sever the Confederate lines of communication and supply, targeting the three supply lines (Weldon Rail Road, Boydton Plank Road, and South Side Rail Road) which sustained Lee's army, by coordinating operations south and southwest of Petersburg and north of the James River.
Greene also argues that, in addition to the direct threat against Petersburg and Richmond, Grant saw these actions as supporting Phil Sheridan’s campaign in the Shenandoah Valley.
Greene covers the Confederate side of the story well, as the campaign proved a turning point for Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia. He notes that Lee, with his forces over-stretched, repeatedly told President Davis that unless his numerical inferiority was addressed, he was doubtful of achieving a good outcome on future battlefields. While the Confederates did have limited, if spectacular victories during this period at Reams' Station and the Beefsteak Raid, these didn’t notably alter the overall military situation.
Greene is even-handed, allowing the evidence to guide his study. However, there are more sources on the Union point of view than the Confederate one, which perhaps slants his conclusions.
Greene devotes special attention to some unusual aspects of the campaign. He offers a detailed analysis of what went wrong at the Crater, an action which, he observes, increased Confederate hostility toward African American Union troops, while earning the latter some grudging respect from their white comrades. He also goes into some detail on the Confederate "special operation” that blew up the Union munitions depot at City Point on August 9th, and on Wade Hampton’s “Beefsteak Raid” in September.
This well-written, straight-forward, account of the Petersburg Campaign, a volume in the UNC series “Civil War America,” is essential reading for those with a serious interest in the Civil War.
---///---
Our Reviewer: David Marshall has been a high school American history teacher in the Miami-Dade School district for more than three decades. A life-long Civil War enthusiast, David is president of the Miami Civil War Round Table Book Club. In addition to numerous reviews in Civil War News and other publications, he has given presentations to Civil War Round Tables on Joshua Chamberlain, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the common soldier. His previous reviews here include, We Shall Conquer or Die, Dranesville, The Civil War in the Age of Nationalism, “Over a Wide, Hot . . . Crimson Plain", The Atlanta Campaign, Volume 1, Dalton to Cassville, Thunder in the Harbor, All Roads Led to Gettysburg, The Traitor's Homecoming, A Tempest of Iron and Lead, The Cassville Affairs, Holding Charleston by the Bridle, The Maps of Second Bull Run, Hell by the Acre, Chorus of the Union, Digging All Night and Fighting All Day, The Confederate Resurgence of 1864, Building a House Divided, Feeding Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia, A Grand Opening Squandered, and “No One Wants to be the Last to Die” .
---///---
Note: A Campaign of Giants, The Battle for Petersburg, Vol. 2, is also available in audio and e-editions.
StrategyPage reviews are published in cooperation with The New York Military Affairs Symposium
www.nymas.org