A report on Siege of Petersburg, American Civil War, James Longstreet and Ambrose Burnside

The "Dictator" siege mortar at Petersburg. In the foreground, the figure on the right is Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac.

Clockwise from top: Battle of Gettysburg

Union Captain John Tidball's artillery

Confederate prisoners

ironclad USS Atlanta (1861)

Ruins of Richmond, Virginia

Battle of Franklin

Fredericksburg, Virginia; May 1863. Soldiers in the trenches. Trench warfare would appear again more infamously in World War I

Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, aroused public opinion about the evils of slavery. According to legend, when Lincoln was introduced to her at the White House, his first words were, "So this is the little lady who started this Great War."

Frederick Douglass, a former slave, was a leading abolitionist

Siege of Petersburg, assaults on June 15–18

Marais des Cygnes massacre of anti-slavery Kansans, May 19, 1858

August 30, 4 p.m.: Start of Longstreet's attack

Burnside (seated, center) and officers of the 1st Rhode Island at Camp Sprague, Rhode Island, 1861

Siege of Petersburg, movements against the railroads and A.P. Hill's counterattack, June 21–22

Mathew Brady, Portrait of Abraham Lincoln, 1860

The first published imprint of secession, a broadside issued by the Charleston Mercury, December 20, 1860

"Dictator" siege mortar on the U.S. Military Railroad at Petersburg

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of America (1861–1865)

Longstreet at Gettysburg c. undefined 1900

Engraving of General Burnside in full dress uniform

Bombardment of the Fort by the Confederates

Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater, July 30

Rioters attacking a building during the New York anti-draft riots of 1863

Burnside's grave in Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island

Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

Clashes on the rivers were melees of ironclads, cottonclads, gunboats and rams, complicated by naval mines and fire rafts.

Longstreet's Left Wing assaults, mid-day September 20

Studio photograph of Gen. Ambrose Burnside taken sometime between 1860 and 1862. Photograph shows his unusual sideburns.

Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

Battle between the USS Monitor and USS Merrimack (1855)

Equestrian monument in Burnside Park, Providence, Rhode Island.

Siege of Petersburg, capture of the Weldon Railroad, August 18–19

General Scott's "Anaconda Plan" 1861. Tightening naval blockade, forcing rebels out of Missouri along the Mississippi River, Kentucky Unionists sit on the fence, idled cotton industry illustrated in Georgia.

Siege of Petersburg, actions on October 27

Gunline of nine Union ironclads. South Atlantic Blockading Squadron off Charleston. Continuous blockade of all major ports was sustained by North's overwhelming war production.

Siege of Petersburg, actions preceding Five Forks

A December 1861 cartoon in Punch magazine in London ridicules American aggressiveness in the Trent Affair. John Bull, at right, warns Uncle Sam, "You do what's right, my son, or I'll blow you out of the water."

James Longstreet in later life (1896), affecting the sideburns of his opponent at Fredericksburg and Knoxville

Grant's final assaults and Lee's retreat (start of the Appomattox Campaign)

County map of Civil War battles by theater and year

Equestrian statue of General Longstreet on his horse Hero in Pitzer Woods at Gettysburg National Military Park

"Stonewall" Jackson got his nickname at Bull Run.

Map of events during the Peninsula campaign to the Battle of Seven Pines Confederate
Union

Longstreet's attack in the Battle of the Wilderness, May 6, 1864, shortly before he was wounded Confederate
Union

The Battle of Antietam, the Civil War's deadliest one-day fight.

Confederate dead overrun at Marye's Heights, reoccupied next day May 4, 1863

By 1863, the Union controlled large portions of the Western Theater, especially areas surrounding the Mississippi River

<center>Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson</center>

The Battle of Chickamauga, the highest two-day losses

<center>Brig. Gen. August Kautz</center>

Nathaniel Lyon secured St. Louis docks and arsenal, led Union forces to expel Missouri Confederate forces and government.

Fascine Trench Breastworks, Petersburg, Va. – NARA – 524792. Although identified as Confederate Trenches this is actually Union Fort Sedgwick aka "Fort Hell" which was opposite Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damnation"<ref>Civil War talk Forum</ref>

Union Army 9th Corps attacking Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damanation" sketch by Alfred Ward.

Confederate artilleryman killed during the final Union assault against the trenches at Petersburg. Photo by Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865.<ref>Frassanito, p. 360.</ref><ref>See website Petersburg Project on location of Many of the Roche photographs at Petersburg April 1865</ref> Although prints of this picture list it as being taken at Ft Mahone, historians at the "Petersburg Project" believe it was taken at Confederate Battery 25<ref>Dead Artilleryman comments Petersburg Project</ref>

These dead soldiers—from Ewell's May 1864 attack at Spotsylvania—delayed Grant's advance on Richmond in the Overland Campaign.

Smoke is still rising from the ruins of Richmond, Virginia after surrendering on April 3, 1865 following the Union victory at the siege of Petersburg. Union cavalry mounts with carbines visible are hitched in the foreground.

Richmond–Petersburg Theater, fall 1864
Confederate
Union

Map of Confederate territory losses year by year

Burying Union dead on the Antietam battlefield, 1862

Through the supervision of the Freedmen's Bureau, northern teachers traveled into the South to provide education and training for the newly freed population.

Beginning in 1961 the U.S. Post Office released commemorative stamps for five famous battles, each issued on the 100th anniversary of the respective battle.

The Battle of Fort Sumter, as depicted by Currier and Ives.

Slave states that seceded before April 15, 1861 Slave states that seceded after April 15, 1861 Union states that permitted slavery (border states) Union states that banned slavery
Territories

US Secession map. The Union vs. the Confederacy.
Union states
Union territories not permitting slavery
Border Union states, permitting slavery (One of these states, West Virginia was created in 1863)
Confederate states
Union territories that permitted slavery (claimed by Confederacy) at the start of the war, but where slavery was outlawed by the U.S. in 1862

Abolition of slavery in the various states of the United States over time:Abolition of slavery during or shortly after the American Revolution
The Northwest Ordinance, 1787
Gradual emancipation in New York (starting 1799, completed 1827) and New Jersey (starting 1804, completed by Thirteenth Amendment, 1865)
The Missouri Compromise, 1821
Effective abolition of slavery by Mexican or joint US/British authority
Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1861
Abolition of slavery by Congressional action, 1862
Emancipation Proclamation as originally issued, January 1, 1863
Subsequent operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863
Abolition of slavery by state action during the Civil War
Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1864
Operation of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1865
Thirteenth Amendment to the US constitution, December 18, 1865
Territory incorporated into the US after the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment

Oath to defend the Constitution of the United States and, among other promises, to "abide by and faithfully support all acts of Congress passed during the . . . rebellion having reference to slaves . . . ," signed by former Confederate officer Samuel M. Kennard on June 27, 1865

The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War.

- Siege of Petersburg

James Longstreet (January 8, 1821 – January 2, 1904) was one of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse".

- James Longstreet

Ambrose Everett Burnside (May 23, 1824 – September 13, 1881) was an American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the Civil War and three times Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successful inventor and industrialist.

- Ambrose Burnside

He later returned to the field, serving under Lee in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign.

- James Longstreet

The last significant battles raged around the ten-month Siege of Petersburg, gateway to the Confederate capital of Richmond.

- American Civil War

IX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside, including the divisions of Brig. Gens. James H. Ledlie, Robert B. Potter, Orlando B. Willcox, and Edward Ferrero (the latter division being manned by United States Colored Troops). Maj. Gen. John G. Parke replaced Burnside after the Battle of the Crater.

- Siege of Petersburg

First Corps, under Lt. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. George E. Pickett, Charles W. Field, and Joseph B. Kershaw. Lt. Gen. James Longstreet returned from medical leave and resumed command of the corps on October 19. Anderson was given command of the new Fourth Corps, which included the division of Maj. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson.

- Siege of Petersburg

Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans was defeated at the Battle of Chickamauga, and Burnside was pursued by Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, against whose troops he had battled at Marye's Heights.

- Ambrose Burnside

After North Anna and Cold Harbor, he took his place in the siege lines at Petersburg.

- Ambrose Burnside

The Union left-wing under Major General Ambrose Burnside attempted to cross the Antietam Creek at what would become known as Burnside's Bridge, while Jones' division led by Brigadier General Robert Toombs's brigade defended the heights on the western side of the creek.

- James Longstreet

General Lee and top subordinates James Longstreet and Stonewall Jackson defeated McClellan in the Seven Days Battles and forced his retreat.

- American Civil War

When the cautious McClellan failed to follow up on Antietam, he was replaced by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

- American Civil War

4 related topics with Alpha

Robert E. Lee

3 links

Lee at age 31 in 1838, as a Lieutenant of Engineers in the U.S. Army

Robert E. Lee, around age 38, and his son William Henry Fitzhugh Lee, around age 8, c.1845

Robert E. Lee around age 43, when he was a brevet lieutenant-colonel of engineers, c. 1850

Lee mounted on Traveller (September 1866)

Battle of Gettysburg, by Thure de Thulstrup

Lee with son Custis (left) and aide Walter H. Taylor (right) by Brady, April 16, 1865

General Lee and his Confederate officers in their first meeting since Appomattox, August 1869.

Oath of amnesty submitted by Robert E. Lee in 1865

Robert E. Lee, oil on canvas, Edward Calledon Bruce, 1865. Virginia Historical Society

Robert Edward Lee in art at the Battle of Chancellorsville in a stained glass window of the Washington National Cathedral

Facade view of Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial — at Arlington National Cemetery, in Virginia, pictured in 2006

Unveiling of the Equestrian Statue of Robert E. Lee, May 29, 1890, Richmond, Virginia

The removal of Lee's statue from a monument in New Orleans

Stained glass of Lee's life in the National Cathedral

Robert E. Lee, National Statuary Hall, Washington, D.C. Edward Virginius Valentine, sculptor, 1909

Robert E Lee, Virginia Monument, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, Frederick William Sievers, sculptor, 1917

Robert E. Lee Monument by Mercié, Monument Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, 1890

Statue of Lee at the Confederate War Memorial, Dallas, 1896

University Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University

Robert Edward Lee (January 19, 1807 – October 12, 1870) was a Confederate general who served the Confederate States of America in the American Civil War, during which he was appointed the overall commander of the Confederate States Army.

Grant engaged Lee's army in bloody but inconclusive battles at the Wilderness and Spotsylvania before the lengthy Siege of Petersburg, which was followed in April 1865 by the capture of Richmond and the destruction of most of Lee's army, which he finally surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House.

Lee built up a collection of talented subordinates, most notably James Longstreet, Stonewall Jackson, and J. E. B. Stuart, who along with Lee were critical to the Confederacy's battlefield success.

Disappointed by McClellan's failure to destroy Lee's army, Lincoln named Ambrose Burnside the commander of the Army of the Potomac.

Ulysses S. Grant

2 links

American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

Grant's birthplace, Point Pleasant, Ohio

Chinook Indian Plank House Published 1845
Grant believed Pacific Northwest Indians were a peaceful people and not a threat to settlers.

"Hardscrabble" Published 1891
The farm home Grant built in Missouri for his family. His wife Julia called the home an "unattractive cabin".

Brigadier General Grant photographed at Cairo, Illinois, September 1861 (Published 1911)

21st Illinois regiment monument in the Viniard Field, Chickamauga

Grant's successful gamble: Porter's gunboats night ran the Confederate gauntlet at Vicksburg on the Mississippi River.
Published 1863

The Battle of Jackson, fought on May 14, 1863, was part of the Vicksburg Campaign.
Published 1863

Union troops swarm Missionary Ridge and defeat Bragg's army. Published 1886

Commanding General Grant at the Battle of Cold Harbor, June 1864

Grant (center left) next to Lincoln with General Sherman (far left) and Admiral Porter (right) – The Peacemakers by Healy, 1868

Defeated by Grant, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House

Grant–Colfax Republican Ticket
Published 1868

Inauguration of President U.S. Grant, Capitol building steps.
March 4, 1869

Anthony Comstock Grant's vigorous prosecutor of abortionists and pornographers.

Amos T. Akerman, appointed Attorney General by Grant, who vigorously prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan

Image of mobs rioting entitled "The Louisiana Outrage". White Leaguers at Liberty Place attacked the integrated police force and state militia, New Orleans, September 1874.
Published October 1874

Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell aided Grant to defeat the Gold Ring.

Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Grant successfully settled the Alabama Claims by treaty and arbitration.

Wharf of Santo Domingo City
Dominican Republic

American Captain Frye and his crew were executed by Spanish authority.

King Kalākaua of Hawaii meets President Grant at the White House on his state visit, 1874.
Published January 2, 1875

Ely Samuel Parker
Grant appointed Parker the first Native American (Seneca) Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

Battle of the Little Big Horn
Great Sioux War
Published 1889

Cartoon by Thomas Nast on Grant's opponents in the reelection campaign

Grant is congratulated for vetoing the "inflation bill" in 1874.

Cartoonist Thomas Nast praises Grant for rejecting demands by Pennsylvania politicians to suspend civil service rules.

Harper's Weekly
cartoon on Bristow's Whiskey Ring investigation

Cartoonist Joseph Keppler lampooned Grant and his associates. Grant's prosecutions of the Whiskey Ring and the Klan were ignored.
Puck, 1880

Official White House portrait of President Grant by Henry Ulke, 1875

Commanding General Grant
Constant Mayer's portrait of 1866

Grant National Memorial, known as "Grant's Tomb", largest mausoleum in North America

As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War.

For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign and at Petersburg.

Quiet by nature, Grant established a few intimate friends among fellow cadets, including Frederick Tracy Dent and James Longstreet.

The poorly led Union troops under Major General Burnside and Brigadier General Ledlie, rather than encircling the crater, rushed forward and poured directly into it, which was widely deemed a mistake.

Battle of Spottsylvania, Thure de Thulstrup

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

2 links

Union marches and operations in Central Virginia (1864-65).

<center>Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, VI Corps</center>

Positions and movements on the Union flanks, May 9

Grant's grand assault, May 12 (additional map)

"The Battle of Spottsylvania" by Kurz & Allison

<center>Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, Army of the Potomac</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, II Corps</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, V Corps</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside, IX Corps</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Philip Sheridan, Cavalry Corps</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, First Corps</center>

<center>Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell, Second Corps</center>

<center>Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, Third Corps</center>

<center>Maj. Gen. J.E.B. Stuart, Cavalry Corps</center>

This unidentified, dead Confederate soldier of Ewell's Corps was killed during their attack at Alsop's farm. He was wounded in both the right knee and left shoulder, and probably died from loss of blood.

Confederate killed in Ewell's attack May 19, 1864, on the Alsop farm. This photograph was taken just to the right and in front of the preceding photograph.

Confederate dead of General Ewell's Corps who attacked the Union lines on May 19 lined up for burial at the Alsop Farm.

Movements on May 7, 1864; cavalry actions inset
Confederate
Union

The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, sometimes more simply referred to as the Battle of Spotsylvania (or the 19th-century spelling Spottsylvania), was the second major battle in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's 1864 Overland Campaign of the American Civil War.

Supporting attacks by Warren and by Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside were unsuccessful.

He also ordered Maj. Gen. Richard H. Anderson, who had replaced Lt. Gen. James Longstreet in command of the First Corps following that officer's wounding on May 6, to move out along that road.

The armies then faced each other for nine months in the Siege of Petersburg.

Confederate States of America

1 links

Unrecognized breakaway republic in North America that existed from February 8, 1861, to May 9, 1865.

style=padding-left: 0.6em; text-align: left;

Map of the division of the states in the American Civil War (1861–1865). Blue indicates the northern Union states; light blue represents five Union slave states (border states) that primarily stayed in Union control. Red represents southern seceded states in rebellion, also known as the Confederate States of America. Uncolored areas were U.S. territories, with the exception of the Indian Territory (later Oklahoma).

Evolution of the Confederate States, December 20, 1860 – July 15, 1870

Alexander H. Stephens, Confederate Vice President; author of the 'Cornerstone Speech'

The inauguration of Jefferson Davis in Montgomery, Alabama

Elias Boudinot, Cherokee secessionist, Rep. Indian Territory

William T. Sutherlin mansion, Danville, Virginia, temporary residence of Jefferson Davis and dubbed "Last Capitol of the Confederacy"

Map of the county secession votes of 1860–1861 in Appalachia within the ARC definition. Virginia and Tennessee show the public votes, while the other states show the vote by county delegates to the conventions.

The Seal, symbols of an independent agricultural Confederacy surrounding an equestrian Washington, sword encased

Recruitment poster: "Do not wait to be drafted". Under half re-enlisted.

Unionists throughout the Confederate States resisted the 1862 conscription

Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865

Davis's cabinet in 1861, Montgomery, Alabama
Front row, left to right: Judah P. Benjamin, Stephen Mallory, Alexander H. Stephens, Jefferson Davis, John Henninger Reagan, and Robert Toombs
Back row, standing left to right: Christopher Memminger and LeRoy Pope Walker
Illustration printed in Harper's Weekly

Provisional Congress, Montgomery, Alabama

Main railroads of Confederacy, 1861; colors show the different gauges (track width); the top railroad shown in the upper right is the Baltimore and Ohio, which was at all times a Union railroad

Passers-by abusing the bodies of Union supporters near Knoxville, Tennessee. The two were hanged by Confederate authorities near the railroad tracks so passing train passengers could see them.

Confederate memorial tombstone at Natchez City Cemetery in Natchez, Mississippi

This Confederate Flag pattern is the one most often thought of as the Confederate Flag today; it was one of many used by the Confederate armed forces. Variations of this design served as the Battle Flag of the Armies of Northern Virginia and Tennessee, and as the Confederate Naval Jack.

A Home on the Mississippi, Currier and Ives, 1871

St. John's Episcopal Church, Montgomery. The Secession Convention of Southern Churches was held here in 1861.

Major-General John C. Breckinridge, Secretary of War (1865)

General Robert E. Lee, General in Chief (1865)

William L. Yancey, {{small|Alabama Fire-Eater, "The Orator of Secession"}}

William Henry Gist, {{small|Governor of South Carolina, called the Secessionist Convention}}

Gen. Gabriel J. Rains, {{small|Conscription Bureau chief, April 1862 – May 1863}}

Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, {{small|military recruiter under Bragg, then J.E. Johnston<ref>Coulter, The Confederates States of America, p. 324.</ref>}}

The Confederacy comprised U.S. states that declared secession and warred against the United States (the Union) during the American Civil War.

Lee's strike north was turned back at Antietam MD, then Union Major General Ambrose Burnside's offensive was disastrously ended at Fredericksburg VA in December.

Union offensives continued with Sherman's March to the Sea to take Savannah and Grant's Wilderness Campaign to encircle Richmond and besiege Lee's army at Petersburg.

James Longstreet (South Carolina) – Lieutenant-General