A report on Battle of Cold Harbor, Siege of Petersburg, Henry Heth and Confederate States Army

Battle of Cold Harbor by Kurz and Allison, 1888

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.

Battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia

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

Heth as a member of the Confederate Army

Private Edwin Francis Jemison, whose image became one of the most famous portraits of the young soldiers of the war

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

An illustration of Confederate troops at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863

A cartoon from the war, showing the Confederates forcibly drafting a Unionist man into the Confederate army. The Unionist man objects, with the Confederates threatening to lynch him if he does not comply.

Movements in the Overland Campaign, May 29, and actions May 30, 1864

Siege of Petersburg, assaults on June 15–18

An 1861 Confederate recruiting poster from Virginia, urging men to join the Confederate cause and fight off the U.S. Army, which it refers to as a "brutal and desperate foe"

Opposing commanders: Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, USA, at Cold Harbor, photographed by Edgar Guy Fawx in 1864; Gen. Robert E. Lee, CSA, photographed by Mathew Brady in 1865

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

The Burnett Inn at Old Cold Harbor (by Timothy H. O'Sullivan, June 4, 1864)

General Robert E. Lee, the Confederacy's most famous general

Positions of the armies on the afternoon of June 1, 1864

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

An 1895 illustration showing the uniforms of the Confederate Army contrasted with those of the U.S. Army

A painting of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia fighting the U.S. Army at Spotsylvania in 1864

Makeshift Confederate breastworks at the extreme left of their line

Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater, July 30

A group of Confederate soldiers-possibly an artillery unit captured at Island No. 10 and taken at POW Camp Douglas (Chicago); photograph possibly by D. F. Brandon

Earthworks photographed after the battle

Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

Confederate troops marching south on N Market Street, Frederick, Maryland, during the Civil War

7th New York Heavy Artillery (serving as infantry) preparing to leave the trenches and charge the Confederate line, sketched by Alfred Waud

Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

A Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903

"Unburied Dead on Battlefield" by John Reekie; issued as Stero #914 being taken on the 1862 Battlefield of Gaines Mills aka First Cold Harbor April 1865; taken near the Adams Farm where 7th New York artillery was stationed June 1864 see Civil war Talk.

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

Jackson McCurtain, Lieutenant Colonel of the First Choctaw Battalion in Oklahoma, CSA

Siege of Petersburg, actions on October 27

1862 illustration showing Confederates escorting kidnapped African American civilians south into slavery. A similar instance occurred in Pennsylvania when the Army of Northern Virginia invaded it in 1863 to fight the U.S. at Gettysburg.

Union Coehorn mortars in action, drawn by Alfred Waud

Siege of Petersburg, actions preceding Five Forks

An 1862 illustration of a Confederate officer forcing slaves at gunpoint to fire a cannon at U.S. soldiers in battle. A similar instance occurred at the first Battle of Bull Run, where slaves were forced by the Confederates to load and fire a cannon at U.S. forces.

Overland Campaign, from the Wilderness to crossing the James River
Confederate
Union

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

An 1864 cartoon lampooning the Confederacy's deliberating on the use of black soldiers, showing them defecting en masse towards U.S. lines if such proposals were adopted.

"Marlboro", an African-American body servant to a white Confederate soldier

Julian Scott's 1873 painting, Surrender of a Confederate Soldier

Corporal of the Artillery division of the Confederate Army

Confederate mortar crew at Warrington, Florida in 1861, across from Fort Pickens

Confederate artillery at Charleston Harbor, 1863

Lt Col. E. V. Nash, 4th Georgia Infantry Doles-Cook Brigade, who was killed in 1864

<Center>Colonel (Infantry shown)</Center>

<Center>Lieutenant-colonel (Headquarters shown)</Center>

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

<Center>Major (Medical Corps shown)</Center>

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

<Center>Captain (Marine Corps shown)</Center>

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>

<Center>1st Lieutenant (Artillery shown)</Center>

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

<Center>2nd Lieutenant (Cavalry shown)</Center>

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>

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

Henry Heth ( not ) (December 16, 1825 – September 27, 1899) was a career United States Army officer who became a Confederate general in the American Civil War.

- Henry Heth

Thousands of Union soldiers were killed or wounded in a hopeless frontal assault against the fortified positions of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army.

- Battle of Cold Harbor

Petersburg was crucial to the supply of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond.

- Siege of Petersburg

In the final stage, Lee entrenched his army within besieged Petersburg before finally retreating westward across Virginia.

- Battle of Cold Harbor

This theory was tested at the Battle of Cold Harbor (May 31 – June 12) when Grant's army once again came into contact with Lee's near Mechanicsville.

- Siege of Petersburg

Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Henry Heth and Cadmus M. Wilcox and Brig. Gen. William Mahone.

- Siege of Petersburg

In the subsequent Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, his division was held primarily in the rear, and was positioned on the Confederate left flank at the Battles of North Anna and Cold Harbor.

- Henry Heth

Heth also participated in the Siege of Petersburg, playing direct roles in the battles of Globe Tavern; Second Ream's Station; Peeble's Farm; Boydton Plank Road; and Hatcher's Run.

- Henry Heth

Third Corps, under Lt. Gen. A.P. Hill, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Henry Heth and Cadmus M. Wilcox, and Brig. Gen. William Mahone.

- Battle of Cold Harbor

Army of the New River – Henry Heth

- Confederate States Army

During the Civil War 28,693 Native Americans served in the U.S. and Confederate armies, participating in battles such as Pea Ridge, Second Manassas, Antietam, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in Federal assaults on Petersburg.

- Confederate States Army

2 related topics with Alpha

A. P. Hill

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Portrait of Hill by William Ludwell Sheppard, 1898

Ambrose Powell Hill Jr. (November 9, 1825 – April 2, 1865) was a Confederate general who was killed in the American Civil War.

Reassigned to the class of 1847, he made new friendships in particular with Henry Heth and Ambrose Burnside.

Hill held the Confederate left flank at Cold Harbor, but two divisions of his corps were used to defend against the main Union attack on the right flank on June 3; when part of the troops to his right gave way, Hill used one brigade to launch a successful counterattack.

During the Siege of Petersburg of 1864–65, Hill and his men participated in several battles during the various Union offensives, particularly Jerusalem Plank Road, the Crater, Globe Tavern, Second Reams Station, and Peebles Farm.

Battle flag of the Confederate States Army

Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia

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Wartime photo of III Corps divisional commander William Mahone

Wartime photo of III Corps divisional commander and temporary corps commander Henry Heth

The Third Corps, Army of Northern Virginia was a unit of the Provisional Army of the Confederate States.

For the Corps' third division, Lee created a new division from two brigades sent from the defenses around Richmond and two brigades from Pender's division, assigning it to the command of Henry Heth.

At Cold Harbor, Hill was stationed on the Confederate left flank but on June 2 Mahone's and Wilcox's divisions were moved to the Confederate right in response to the movements of the Union II Corps; Heth's division remained on the left.

Following Cold Harbor, the corps was rushed to the Richmond-Petersburg area where it was engaged in the three-day Battle of Petersburg.