A report on Robert E. Lee, Siege of Petersburg, Confederate States Army and Battle of Cold Harbor

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

Battle of Cold Harbor by Kurz and Allison, 1888

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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"

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

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

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

Lee mounted on Traveller (September 1866)

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

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

Battle of Gettysburg, by Thure de Thulstrup

"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

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

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

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

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

Makeshift Confederate breastworks at the extreme left of their line

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

Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

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

Earthworks photographed after the battle

Oath of amnesty submitted by Robert E. Lee in 1865

Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

A Cherokee Confederates reunion in New Orleans, 1903

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

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

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

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

"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.

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

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.

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

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.

Union Coehorn mortars in action, drawn by Alfred Waud

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

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.

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

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

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

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

Corporal of the Artillery division of the Confederate Army

Stained glass of Lee's life in the National Cathedral

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

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

Confederate artillery at Charleston Harbor, 1863

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

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

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

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

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

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

University Chapel on the campus of Washington and Lee University

<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

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.

- Robert E. Lee

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

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.

- Robert E. Lee

The main Confederate armies, the Army of Northern Virginia under General Robert E. Lee and the remnants of the Army of Tennessee and various other units under General Joseph E. Johnston, surrendered to the U.S. on April 9, 1865 (officially April 12), and April 18, 1865 (officially April 26).

- Confederate States Army

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

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

These battles in the Overland Campaign included the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House and Cold Harbor.

- Robert E. Lee

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.

Following Jackson's death in May 1863 at the Battle of Chancellorsville, Hill was promoted to lieutenant general and commanded the Third Corps of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, which he led in the Gettysburg Campaign and the fall campaigns of 1863.

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.

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

Particularly after the death of Gen. Robert E. Lee in 1870, Early delivered speeches establishing the Lost Cause position.

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.