Petersburg Trampling Out the Vintage … Chapter 18

• Important rail junction 20 mi. S. of Richmond – Thru which 3 of the 5 railroads that fed Richmond passed

• Defended by P.G.T. Beauregard • Under siege from the Army of the Potomac

– Commanded by George G. Meade

The Crater

The Crater

• 48th Pennsylvania

• Black division trained to exploit the

July 30, 1864

– Made up of many coal miners – Commanded by Col. Henry Pleasants • Former mining engineer – Conceived the idea of a mine under the defenses of Petersburg and loaded w/ gunpowder • Standard practice of siege warfare

• Ambrose E. Burnside – Approved the idea of the Crater

resulting hole in the CSA lines.

– Under the command of Gen. Edward Ferrero

• Meade objected. – Feared political consequences if the plan failed – May have lacked faith in black troops

• Burnside protested. – Grant eventually sided w/ Meade.

• New division chosen by drawing lots. – James H. Ledlie’s division “won” the drawing.

The Crater • Explosion created huge crater. – Measured 170’ long, 60 or 70’ wide, and 30’ deep – Destroyed entire artillery battery and buried entire infantry regiment

• Union forces charged directly into the crater.

– Rather than moving around the crater as the original troops had been trained

• CSA forces recovered quickly.

– Lining the crater and shooting down at the trapped Union forces

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Shenandoah Valley

Shenandoah Valley

• Raided by the CSA in hopes of

• Early and the CSA were running wild

May-Oct. 1864

relieving pressure on Richmond

– Repeated the strategy Lee used during Peninsula Campaign

• Provided the threat … – Of a renewed invasion of the N. – On the security of Washington – On Baltimore • Site of the Republican Nat’l Convention

• Commanded by Jubal Early

Mobile Bay Aug. 5, 1864

• Last remaining CSA port on the Gulf of Mexico

– Had been the chief cottonshipping port before the war – Became even more important after the fall of New Orleans

and “raising hell.”

– Even reached the outskirts of Washington

• Philip H. Sheridan

– Sent in command of an army to relieve the pressure on Washington

– Sought to destroy the Shenandoah Valley • To deny Early the possibility of rapid movement and resupply from the land

• Wrote to Grant that “a crow would need to carry rations to cross the Shenandoah Valley”

• Became known as “The Burning” • May have helped shorten the war, but embittered the peace!

Mobile Bay • Mined w/ “torpedoes.” – Consisted of tethered kegs filled w/ black powdered and primed to detonate upon contact

• 25-mi. long shallow bay – Protected by sandbars w/ only one deepwater entrance • Guarded by Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines

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Mobile Bay • Protected by the C.S.S. Tennessee

– CSA ironclad ram

Mobile Bay • David G. Farragut – Commanded Union forces at Mobile Bay – From his flagship U.S.S. Hartford

Mobile Bay • U.S.S. Tecumseh – Union monitor – Sank after hitting a torpedo • Led other Union ships to slow and/or reverse course, fouling the whole Union column

• Prompted Farragut’s famous remark, “Damn the torpedoes—full speed ahead!”

Mobile Bay

James D. Bulloch

• Smoke from the battle

• Sent by the CSA sec. of the navy to

– He climbed into the rigging to get a better view. • At the age of 63! – He was lashed to the rigging.

– To be used not against the Union navy but against privately-owned ships

obscured his view of the action in Mobile Bay.

England to purchase 6 commerce raiders

• Had to find away around the Foreign Enlistment Act – Prohibited the arming of ships to be used by foreign combatants – Did not forbid the building of unarmed ships to be armed elsewhere!

• Was the uncle of Teddy Roosevelt

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C.S.S. Alabama • Commerce raider built in

Britain and armed in the Azores • Commanded by Raphael Semmes

• Captured or destroyed 69 vessels – Worth an est. $20 million – Occupied a significant portion of the Union navy tracking it down

• Ultimately sank off the coast of Cherbourg in France

– W/ an est. crowd of 15,000 watching

C.S.S. Shenandoah • Only other raider to do significant damage – Most of the damage was down after the war had ended!

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Alabama Claims • Complaint that the British

Fall of Atlanta Sept. 1, 1864

• Unable to lure the CSA

had allowed the sailing of the raiders knowing they were being built for the CSA

• Washington Treaty (1871) – Negotiated w/ the British to settle the Alabama claims – Agreed to submit claims to an arbitrator

• Subsequently awarded the U.S. $15.5 million in 1872

•

forces out in the open to be destroy, Sherman focused on the capture of Atlanta. Sherman decided to repeat the strategy employed by Grant to take Vicksburg. – Move the army S. of the city – Severe the railroads into the city • Montgomery and Atlanta RR • Macon RR

Fall of Atlanta • John Bell Hood – Commanding the defenses of Atlanta – W/drew from Atlanta once the railroads were cut

• Significant Union victory prior to the election

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