General Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, defending both Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond, was getting smaller by the day due to illness, battle casualties, and desertions. The Federal Armies of the Potomac and the James continued stretching Lee’s northern flank outside Richmond and his southern flank outside Petersburg. As a result, the Confederate defense line was being stretched to its limit.
On October 4, Lee wrote to Secretary of War James A. Seddon about the extreme need for more resources: “If we can get out our entire arms-bearing population in Virginia and North Carolina, and relieve all detailed men with Negroes, we may be able, with the blessing of God, to keep the enemy in check to the beginning of winter. If we fail to do this the result may be calamitous.”
Two days later, Lee met with President Jefferson Davis at Chaffin’s Bluff, southeast of Richmond. Unable to launch a major offensive before winter due to his dwindling numbers, Lee was still determined to take back Fort Harrison, which had been lost last month. Leaving a token force in the trenches between the fort and the capital, Lee planned to attack the Federals guarding the Darbytown and New Market roads. These Federals consisted of units from the Army of the James:
- Major-General David B. Birney’s Tenth Corps, which held the Federal line running northeast from Fort Harrison to the New Market road
- Brigadier-General August V. Kautz’s cavalry command, which held the extreme right from the New Market road to the Darbytown and Charles City roads
Under Lee’s plan:
- Brigadier-General Martin Gary’s cavalry brigade and Brigadier-General Edward A. Perry’s infantry brigade would attack from the north, hitting the Federals on their right flank and in their rear.
- Major-General Charles W. Field’s division would launch a frontal attack on the Federals from the west.
- Major-General Robert F. Hoke’s division would support the frontal attack on Field’s right (south).
- Chief of Artillery E. Porter Alexander would bring up his heavy guns in support.
If successful, the Confederates would roll up the Federal right and force them to retreat south toward the James River, abandoning Fort Harrison along the way.
At dawn on the 7th, the Confederates hit the Federal right and front, pushing Kautz’s 1,700 Federals southward as planned, and capturing all eight of their guns. The Federals fell back from the Charles City and Darbytown roads and joined Brigadier-General Alfred H. Terry’s division of Birney’s corps, which was firmly entrenched on the New Market road and ready.
Field’s Confederates charged, but Federal artillery thinned their ranks. Field then sent his entire division forward, but the Federals repelled this attack as well. Brigadier-General John Gregg, commanding the famed Texas Brigade, was killed. Hoke did not come up as planned, causing confusion among the Confederates until Lee finally ordered them to fall back.
The Confederates sustained 1,350 casualties in their failed effort to take back Fort Harrison and drive the Federals to the James River. The Federals lost just 399 men and now had a permanent lodgment north of the James from which to attack Richmond. Lee warned his top officers, “We must drive them back at all costs.” He then notified Adjutant-General Samuel Cooper that if Federal General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant stretched the Confederate defenders any further, “I fear it will be impossible to keep him out of Richmond.”
Lee gave up trying to take back Fort Harrison and instead directed his troops to build fortifications between the Federal line and the inner defense line in front of Richmond. Panicked Confederate officials hurriedly conscripted all able-bodied men in Richmond and forced them into the fortifications outside the city. Citizens loudly protested this as an act of tyranny, and the press reported that most of the “involuntary soldiers” deserted as soon as they could.
Meanwhile, Federal scouts reported the Confederate work on the new fortifications and Terry, now commanding the Tenth Corps (Birney had relinquished corps command due to illness and died later this month), sent two divisions forward to try locating the newly extended Confederate left flank. Terry had been warned against attacking entrenched positions.
The Federal division under Brigadier-General Adelbert Ames advanced against Field’s division north of the Darbytown road. Heavy skirmishing ensued in which one of Ames’s brigades lost nearly half its strength. When no Federals came up in support, Terry ordered a withdrawal back to the New Market road. The new intermediate Confederate defense line remained in place. But the Federals would continue to stretch Lee’s army to its limits.
Bibliography
- Catton, Bruce and Long, E.B. (ed.), Never Call Retreat: Centennial History of the Civil War Book 3. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc. (Kindle Edition), 1965.
- Davis, William C., Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg. Alexandria, VA: Time-Life Books, 1983.
- Freeman, Douglas Southall, Lee. Scribner, (Kindle Edition), 2008.
- Sommers, Richard J. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
- Wert, Jeffry D. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.