A report on Battle of Cold Harbor, John B. Gordon, Siege of Petersburg 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

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)

John Brown Gordon statue by sculptor Solon Borglum, located on the northeastern part of the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol

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

Gordon's grave, Oakland Cemetery, Atlanta, Georgia

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

John Brown Gordon (February 6, 1832 – January 9, 1904) was an attorney, a slaveholding plantation owner, general in the Confederate States Army, and politician in the postwar years.

- John B. Gordon

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

His division was held in reserve at the Battle of North Anna and was positioned in the Magnolia Swamp, north of where the major fighting occurred at the Battle of Cold Harbor.

- John B. Gordon

In this role, he defended the line in the Siege of Petersburg and commanded the attack on Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865 (where he was wounded again, in the leg).

- John B. Gordon

Second Corps, under Lt. Gen. Jubal Early, including the divisions of Maj. Gens. Stephen D. Ramseur, John B. Gordon, and Robert E. Rodes.

- Battle of Cold Harbor

Some other prominent Confederate generals who led significant units operating sometimes independently in the CSA included Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, James Longstreet, J. E. B. Stuart, Gideon Pillow, A. P. Hill, John B. Gordon.

- 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

Lee had Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon plan a surprise attack on the Union lines that would force Grant to contract his lines and disrupt his plans to assault the Confederate works (which, unbeknownst to Lee and Gordon, Grant had already ordered for March 29).

- Siege of Petersburg

1 related topic with Alpha

Jubal Early

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Virginia lawyer and politician who became a Confederate general during the American Civil War.

Early's childhood home in northeastern Franklin County

General Early, disguised as a farmer, while escaping to Mexico, 1865

A plaque praising Early in Rocky Mount, Virginia

On June 19, 1861, Early formally became a colonel in the Confederate army, commanding the 24th Virginia Infantry, including his young cousin (previously expelled from Virginia Military Institute (VMI) for attending a tea party), Jack Hairston.

Thus, Early commanded that corps in the Battle of Cold Harbor.

Thus Early commanded the Confederacy's last invasion of the North, secured much-needed funds and supplies for the Confederacy and drawing off Union troops from the siege of Petersburg.

Furthermore, one of Early's key subordinates, Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon, in his memoirs written in 1908 (after the irascible Early's death), also blamed Early's indecision rather than the troops for the afternoon rout.