- Battle of Fort Stedman
Warbox
conflict=Battle of Fort Stedman
colour_scheme=background:#ffcccc
caption=
partof=American Civil War
date=March 25 ,1865
place=Petersburg
result=Union victory
combatant1= flagicon|USA|1863United States (Union)
combatant2= flagicon|CSA CSA (Confederacy)
commander1=John G. Parke
commander2=Robert E. Lee
John B. Gordon
strength1=
strength2=
casualties1=950 killed and wounded, 1 000 captured
casualties2=2,900|The Battle of Fort Stedman was fought on
March 25 ,1865 , during the final days of theAmerican Civil War . TheUnion Army fortification in the siege lines aroundPetersburg, Virginia , was attacked in a pre-dawn Confederate assault by troops led byMajor General John B. Gordon . The attack was the last serious attempt by Confederate troops to break theSiege of Petersburg .Background
In March, 1865, General
Robert E. Lee had to face several Union victories in the Shenandoah Valley and in the Carolinas. These victories allowed the Union to strengthen their positions around Petersburg and to threaten Lee's lines of supply. In this risky situation Lee ordered GeneralJohn B. Gordon to formulate a plan that would allow the Confederate Army to pull out of Petersburg and perhaps give it the opportunity to link up with the Confederate army inNorth Carolina under GeneralJoseph E. Johnston .Confederate attack
Gordon's idea was a surprise attack on the Union lines to force
Ulysses S. Grant to shorten his lines or even set his lines back. He hoped that the breakthrough would lead to the main Union supply base of City Point, ten miles northeast. In detail, Gordon planned a pre-dawn assault on Fort Stedman, one of the fortifications marking the Union lines that encircled Petersburg. It was one of the closest spots on the line, there were fewer wooden "cheval de frise " obstructions, and a supply depot on the U.S. Military Railroad was less than a mile behind the fort. Directly after capturing Fort Stedman, Confederate soldiers would move north and south along the Union lines to clear the neighboring fortifications and make way for the main attack. The assault force was Gordon's Second Corps of 7,500 men, backed byRobert Ransom 'sNorth Carolina brigade andWilliam Wallace 'sSouth Carolina brigade, in all about 10,000 men, with 5,000 in reserve.The attack started at 4:00 a.m. On a signal, lead parties of sharpshooters and engineers masquerading as deserting soldiers headed out to overwhelm Union pickets and to remove wooden defenses that would have obstructed the infantry advance. It was a complete surprise as they captured Fort Stedman and the batteries (designated Batteries X and XI) just to the north and south of the fort. Union forces under Brig. Gen. Napolean McLaughlen, many of them heavy artillery troops serving as infantry, used canister fire against the attackers, but were unable to organize an effective defense. They attempted to fire mortars from Battery XII onto Fort Stedman, but to no avail. McLaughlen arrived at the fort without knowing it had changed hands and was forced to surrender his sword to Gordon. The Confederates captured nearly 1,000 prisoners.
Gordon's next objective was to widen his breakthrough by capturing Fort McGilvery to the north of Stedman and Fort Haskell to the south. The lead attackers reached Harrison's Creek along the Prince George Court House Road, but were unable to widen their breakthrough past the neighboring forts. (Unfortunately for the defenders of Fort Haskell, Union batteries in other forts assumed it had fallen and shelled it with
friendly fire .) Confederate reserve forces waited for word to launch the main attack in the direction of City Point.Union counterattack
However the Union was not willing to retreat. Union Major General
John F. Hartranft , commander of the IX Corps Reserve Division (a unit made up of six newly recruitedPennsylvania regiments), gathered his troops for a counterattack. With artillery support from up and down the Union line, General Hartranft managed to stop the Confederate attack. Gordon, who was in Fort Stedman, realized the plan had failed when his lead men started returning and reported remarkable Union resistance. By 7:30 a.m. Union forces had sealed the breach and their artillery was heavily bombarding the fort. A coordinated attack started before 8:00 a.m. and Hartranft managed to retake Fort Stedman and restored the initial Union line. The retreating Confederates came under Union crossfire, suffering heavy casualties. Their attack had failed.Aftermath
The attack on Fort Stedman turned out to be a four-hour action with no impact on the Union lines. The Confederate Army was forced to set back its own lines, as the Union attacked further down the front line. To give Gordon's attack enough strength to be successful, Lee had weakened his own right flank. There, near Five Forks, the Union counterattack prepared the ground for one of General Grant's breakthrough attacks on
April 2 ,1865 .Lee's army suffered heavy casualties during the battle of Fort Stedman—about 2,900, including 1,000 captured in the Union counterattack. But more seriously, the Confederate positions were weakened. After the battle, Lee's defeat was only a matter of time. His final opportunity to break the Union lines and regain the momentum was gone. The Battle of Fort Stedman was the final episode of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. Immediately following was the
Appomattox Campaign , including theBattle of Five Forks and the final surrender of Lee's army onApril 9 ,1865 .References
* [http://www.nps.gov/archive/pete/mahan/eduhistbtlstdmn.html Petersburg National Battlefield]
*McPherson, James M., "Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States)", Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0
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