Battle of Fort Stedman
Battle of Fort Stedman | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Part of the American Civil War | |||||||
1865 photograph at Fort Stedman by Timothy H. O'Sullivan | |||||||
| |||||||
Belligerents | |||||||
United States (Union) | CSA (Confederacy) | ||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
John G. Parke |
John B. Gordon | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
14,898 [1] | 10,000 [1] | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
1,044 total 72 killed 450 wounded 522 missing/captured [2] |
4,000 total 600 killed 2,400 wounded 1,000 missing/captured [2] |
The Battle of Fort Stedman, also known as the Battle of Hare's Hill, was fought on March 25, 1865, during the final weeks of the
Background
During March 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee continued to defend his positions around Petersburg, but his Army was weakened by desertion, disease, and shortage of supplies and he was outnumbered by his Union counterpart, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, by about 125,000 to 50,000, and he asked Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon for advice. Gordon replied that he had three recommendations, in decreasing order of preference: first, offer peace terms to the enemy; second, retreat from Richmond and Petersburg, link up with the Confederate army in North Carolina under General Joseph E. Johnston, jointly defeat Sherman, and then go after Grant; third, fight without delay. An argument ensued, with Lee rejecting the political implications of the first choice and indicating the difficulty of the second, but Gordon left the meeting with the impression that Lee was considering those options. On March 6, however, Gordon was summoned back to headquarters and Lee told him that "there seemed to be but one thing that we could do—fight. To stand still was death. It could only be death if we fought and failed."[3]
Gordon later wrote in his memoirs that he "labored day and night at this exceedingly grave and discouraging problem, on the proper solution of which depended the commander's decision as to when and where he would deliver his last blow for the life of the Confederacy." He worked on his plans until March 23 and decided to recommend 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).
Gordon planned a pre-dawn assault from the Confederate stronghold known as Colquitt's Salient against Fort Stedman, one of the fortifications in Union lines that encircled Petersburg, named for
The assault force was three divisions of Gordon's
Opposing forces
Union
Opposing commanders |
---|
|
Confederate
Battle
Confederate attack
Gordon's attack started at 4:15 a.m. Lead parties of sharpshooters and engineers masquerading as deserting soldiers headed out to overwhelm Union pickets and to remove obstructions that would delay the infantry advance. They were followed by three groups of 100 men assigned to storm the Union works and stream back into the Union rear area. These men relied on surprise and speed—they carried unloaded muskets so that no one could accidentally fire and alert the enemy. The main thrust was between Batteries XI and X, with one group moving north for Battery XI and the other two for X and Stedman. The movement achieved complete surprise.[6]
Brevet Brig. Gen. Napoleon B. McLaughlen, the officer responsible for the Fort Stedman sector, heard the sounds of the attack, dressed quickly in the predawn darkness, and rode to Fort Haskell, just to the south of Battery XII, which he found to be ready to defend itself. As he moved north, McLaughlen ordered Battery XII to open fire on Battery XI and ordered a reserve infantry regiment, the 59th Massachusetts, to counterattack, which they did with fixed bayonets, briefly re-capturing Battery XI. Assuming that he had sealed the only breach in the line, McLaughlen rode into Fort Stedman. He recalled, "I crossed the parapet and meeting some men coming over the curtains, whom in the darkness I supposed to be part of the picket, I established them inside the work, giving directions with regard to position and firing, all of which were instantly obeyed." He suddenly realized that the men he was ordering were Confederates and they realized he was a Union general, capturing him. He was taken back across no man's land and surrendered his sword personally to Gordon.[7]
Gordon soon arrived at Fort Stedman and found his attack had so far exceeded his "most sanguine expectations." Within minutes, Batteries X, XI (Retaken from the 59th Massachusetts), and XII and Fort Stedman had been seized, opening a gap nearly 1,000 feet (300 m) long in the Union line. Confederate artillerists under Lt. Col.
Gordon sent a message back to Lee that the attack was going well, but he was unaware of the trouble developing. His three 100-man detachments were wandering around the rear area in confusion and many had stopped to satisfy their hunger with captured Federal rations. The cavalry had not found an avenue through which to advance into the rear. Pickett's Division had such difficulty with rail transportation that only three of its four brigades departed on schedule, and they did not arrive until midday, too late to take part in the battle. And the main Union defense force was beginning to mobilize. Parke acted decisively, ordering Hartranft's reserve division to close the gap while his reserve artillery under Col. John C. Tidball took up positions on a ridge east of Fort Stedman and began shelling the Confederates.[9]
Union counterattack
Hartranft, in the words of historian Noah Andre Trudeau, "was a man possessed. From the instant he received word that Fort Stedman had fallen, Hartranft worked furiously to limit the Confederate penetration and, once that objective has been achieved, to eliminate the pocket." Finding that Maj. Gen. Orlando B. Willcox, Parke's 1st Division commander and a more senior officer, was preparing his headquarters to withdraw, Hartranft was able to convince Willcox to yield tactical command and he organized defensive forces that completely ringed the Confederate penetration by 7:30 a.m., stopping it just short of the military railroad depot, Meade Station. The Union artillery, aware that Confederates occupied the batteries and Fort Stedman, launched punishing fire against them.[10]
Gordon, who was in Fort Stedman, realized his plan had failed when his lead men started returning and reported remarkable Union resistance. With permission from Lee, who had arrived to watch the battle, Gordon scrambled to get his forces back to safety. By 7:45 a.m., 4,000 Union troops under Hartranft were positioned in a semicircle of a mile and a half, ready to counterattack. A messenger arrived with word from Parke to delay the attack while reinforcements came up from the VI Corps, but Hartranft ordered his line to charge, writing afterward that "I saw that the enemy had already commenced to waver, and that success was certain. I, therefore, allowed the line to charge; besides this, it was doubtful whether I could have communicated with the regiments on the flanks in time to countermand the movement." The retreating Confederates came under Union crossfire, suffering heavy casualties. Their attack had failed. Fort Stedman was recaptured by a squad from the 208th Pennsylvania.[11]
Aftermath
A distinguished visitor came close to witnessing the action on March 25.
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. The II Corps and VI Corps seized much of the entrenched Confederate picket line southwest of Petersburg, but found the main line still well manned. This Union advance prepared the ground for Grant's breakthrough attack in the Third Battle of Petersburg on April 2, 1865.[13]
Union casualties in the Battle of Fort Stedman were 1,044 (72 killed, 450 wounded, 522 missing or captured), Confederate casualties a considerably heavier 4,000 (600 killed, 2,400 wounded, 1,000 missing or captured).
Notes
- ^ a b CWSAC Report Update
- ^ a b c Bonekemper, p. 319. The author presents casualty figures from a wide variety of sources and provides his best estimate. Kennedy, p. 373, and Salmon, p. 450, estimate 1,017 Union, 2,681 Confederate (including 1,949 prisoners). Horn, p. 216, estimates 2,087 Union, "about 4,000" Confederate. Korn, p. 39, estimates 1,000 Union (half taken prisoner), 3,500 Confederate (1,900 prisoners). Greene, pp. 114–15, estimates 1,000 Union (more than half taken prisoner), 2,700–4,000 Confederate.
- ^ Salmon, p. 448; Korn, pp. 33–34; Greene, pp. 108–11; Horn, p. 209; Trudeau, pp. 333–34.
- ^ Korn, p. 34; Trudeau, pp. 334–36; Horn, pp. 212–13; Salmon, p. 448; Greene, pp. 111–12.
- ^ Trudeau, p. 337; Salmon, p. 450; Korn, p. 34.
- ^ Trudeau, pp. 337–40; Salmon, p. 450; Korn, pp. 34–35.
- ^ Trudeau, pp. 341–42; Korn, pp. 35–36.
- ^ Korn, pp. 36–38; Trudeau, pp. 342–43.
- ^ Korn, pp. 38–39; Horn, pp. 214–16.
- ^ Korn, pp. 38–39; Horn, p. 215; Greene, p. 114; Trudeau, pp. 348–49.
- ^ Salmon, p. 450; Trudeau, pp. 348–49; Korn, pp. 38–39.
- ^ Trudeau, pp. 351–52; Korn, p. 39.
- ^ Horn, pp. 215–16; Salmon, pp. 467–68.
- ^ Salmon, pp. 451–57.
References
- Bonekemper, Edward H., III. A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius. Washington, DC: Regnery, 2004. ISBN 0-89526-062-X.
- ISBN 0-684-84944-5.
- Greene, A. Wilson. The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign: Breaking the Backbone of the Rebellion. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2008. ISBN 978-1-57233-610-0.
- Horn, John. The Petersburg Campaign: June 1864 – April 1865. Conshohocken, PA: Combined Publishing, 1999. ISBN 978-1-58097-024-2.
- Kennedy, Frances H., ed. [ISBN 0-395-74012-6.
- Korn, Jerry, and the Editors of Time-Life Books. Pursuit to Appomattox: The Last Battles. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1987. ISBN 0-8094-4788-6.
- Salmon, John S. The Official Virginia Civil War Battlefield Guide. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2001. ISBN 0-8117-2868-4.
- Trudeau, Noah Andre. The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864 – April 1865. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1991. ISBN 0-8071-1861-3.
- Petersburg National Battlefield from the National Park Service
- National Park Service battle description
- CWSAC Report Update from the National Park Service
External links
- Battle of Fort Stedman: Maps, histories, photos, and preservation news from the Civil War Trust
- Battle of Fort Stedman Map and Order of Battle from beyondthecrater.com