As Major-General Benjamin F. Butler prepared his Federal assault outside the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant informed Major-General George G. Meade, commanding the Federal Army of the Potomac at Petersburg, that “a movement will take place intended to surprise and capture the works of the enemy north of the James River between Malvern Hill and Richmond.”
Grant envisioned a two-pronged assault that would extend the lines of General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to their breaking point. In conjunction with Butler’s move to the north, Grant instructed Meade, “As a co-operative movement with this you will please have the Army of the Potomac under arms at 4 a.m. on the 29th ready to move in any direction.” The troops were to be supplied with at least three days’ rations and 60 rounds of ammunition.
Grant wanted Meade’s Federals to continue pushing southwest of Petersburg and seize the South Side Railroad, Lee’s last supply line via rail. Grant wrote out “specific instructions for the concentration” of force, but he instead he told Meade that he would “leave the details to you, stating merely that I want every effort used to convince the enemy that the South Side road and Petersburg are the objects of our efforts.”
Meade’s Federals encountered Confederate skirmishers on September 29. Meade wrote his wife that while at the front with his staff, he was nearly killed by a shell. Meade wrote, “A more wonderful escape I never saw.” Major-General Andrew Humphreys, Meade’s chief of staff, wrote that there was:
“–a crashing sound, a plunge & a volcanic shower of dirt covered all the officers in front of me… A shell thrown from a battery of the enemy on our flank… had passed between Genl. Meade & myself, had taken off a small part of the tail of my horse… grazed heavily Genl. Meade’s boot close to the knee, passed between Genl. Griffin & Genl. Bartlett, burying itself in the ground five feet behind them & covering them & their staff with dirt. It did not explode.”
Grant was on the northern end of the Federal line that day with Butler’s troops. After Grant learned that they had captured Fort Harrison, he was told that a large body of Confederate troops was “moving from Petersburg toward Richmond.” Grant passed this on to Meade and added that “it may be well for you to attack this evening.” But after further scouting, Meade learned that the troops reinforcing above the James were not from the Petersburg sector; they were the reserve force on the far left of the Richmond line. Meade therefore decided not to “make a movement to the left today, as it would hardly amount to anything, it being now so late.”
Grant directed Meade to advance the next day, writing, “You may move out now and see if an advantage can be gained. It seems to me the enemy must be weak enough at one or the other place to let us in.” Meade dispatched 16,000 Federals from the Fifth and Ninth corps under Major-Generals Gouverneur Warren and John G. Parke for the assault. Brigadier-General David M. Gregg’s Federal cavalry would guard the Federals’ left (south) flank. The Federals moved west in two columns toward the Confederate defenses along the Boydton Plank Road, which Lee was using in place of the Weldon Railroad (lost to the Federals in August) as a supply line.
Warren’s men led the advance before halting along the Squirrel Level Road and deploying for battle. The Federals then attacked and drove the Confederates back from Poplar Springs Church. Warren’s division under Brigadier-General Charles Griffin captured the important Fort Archer on Peebles’s Farm. Warren informed Meade at 1:30 p.m. that Griffin “just carried the entrenchments on Peebles’ farm in splendid style… (our) loss was not very great,” and the Federals had taken several prisoners.
But the Confederates were not finished fighting; they regrouped on a line closer to the Boydton Plank Road. Warren notified Meade at 2:20 p.m., “I will push up as fast as I can get my troops in order toward Petersburg on the Squirrel Level road.” However, Warren would not advance until Parke’s corps came up on his left and the Federals secured a connection to Globe Tavern.
During that time, Confederates from Lieutenant-General A.P. Hill’s corps under Major-Generals Henry Heth and Cadmus M. Wilcox arrived and counterattacked. Warren’s Federals were knocked back into Parke’s, and the Confederates pushed them for over a mile until they entrenched at Peebles’s Farm. The Federals held firm until the Confederates disengaged for the night.
Meade reported to Grant, “About 4 p.m. General Parke was advancing to the Boydton plank road when he was vigorously attacked by the enemy, said by prisoners to have been two divisions of Hill’s corps. The fighting for some time till after dark was very severe, and after the Ninth Corps rallied and Griffin attacked it is believed the enemy suffered heavily.”
Grant told Meade that he “need not advance tomorrow unless in your judgment an advantage can be gained, but hold on to what you have, and be ready to advance. We must be greatly superior to the enemy in numbers on one flank or the other, and by working around at each end, we will find where the enemy’s weak point is.” Grant optimistically told Meade of a “refugee from Richmond” who said that “the greatest consternation is felt in the City and citizens generally are anxious that the city not be evacuated by the Military. I can’t help believing that the enemy are prepared to leave Petersburg if forced a little.” It seemed the end was near.
The fighting north of the James, along with this fighting on the 30th southwest of Petersburg, stretched Lee’s army to the limit and forced a desperate shift of troops from one threatened front to the other. Lee informed Secretary of War James A. Seddon that while Grant extended his lines and increased his numbers, the Army of Northern Virginia could “only meet his corps, increased by recent recruits, with a division, reduced by long and arduous service.”
Bibliography
- Bearss, Edwin C. with Suderow, Bryce, The Petersburg Campaign: The Western Front Battles, September 1864-April 1865, Volume II. El Dorado Hills, Calif.: Savas Beattie LLC; Casemate Publishers, Kindle Edition, 2012.
- Davis, William C., Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Long, E.B. with Long, Barbara, The Civil War Day by Day. New York: Da Capo Press, Inc., 1971.
- Longacre, Edward G. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- PetersburgSiege.org/Peebles
- McFeely, William S., Grant. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 1981.
- Sears, Stephen W., Lincoln’s Lieutenants: The High Command of the Army of the Potomac. Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Books, (Kindle Edition), 2017.