Let the Thing Be Pressed

In June 1864, Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant began a nearly 10-month campaign in Virginia.

- Jeanie Mebane

Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant

Confederate soldiers had established a long defensive line around Petersburg that extended to Richmond, about 25 miles away. Richmond was the Confederate capital. Food and other supplies reached the city through Petersburg. If Petersburg fell, Richmond would also fall.

The Union army dug a series of trenches most of the way along the Confederate lines. The ranks of the defending Confederate soldiers had grown thin as they spread out to stop the flanking attempts of the Union army. Hungry and cold after a long winter in the trenches, Southern soldiers began to desert in

large numbers to return to families and farms.

Spring 1865 brought warmer weather—and the time to resume fighting. Lee felt that his best option was to give up Richmond and Petersburg. He hoped to lead his Army of Northern Virginia south to join General Joseph E. Johnston’s Army of Tennessee in North Carolina. Their united forces might be strong enough to defeat Union major general William T. Sherman, who was headed north toward Virginia. Then Lee would face Grant.

Flanking means moving to the right or left side of a military position.

Pickets are a detachment of troops sent out ahead of a moving army or assigned a position along the front lines of a stationary army.

But first, Lee had to break the siege. He decided to launch a massive surprise attack. At certain locations, the two armies’ defenses were close together. Confederate Major General John B. Gordon suggested Fort Stedman as the best place for the attack. Not only was the distance between the lines short, but the Union supply depot at City Point was nearby.