Elements of the Federal Army of the Potomac and the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia had battled southwest of Petersburg for two days. Most of the Federals belonged to Major-General Gouverneur Warren’s Fifth Corps, with some under Major-General Andrew A. Humphreys’s Second Corps and Brigadier-General David M. Gregg’s cavalry division. The Federals held the Boydton Plank Road, and they had extended their line to south of Hatcher’s Run.
Major-General George G. Meade, commanding the Potomac army, wrote to General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant at 10:15 a.m. He told Grant about the bitterly cold, wet weather, and “the ignorance I am under of the exact moral condition of Warren’s corps, and his losses from stragglers, has restrained me from giving him positive orders to attack; but I have directed him to push out strong reconnaissances,” and Warren would decide “whether to attack or not.”
Meade then directed Warren to send one of his divisions out to renew the attack on the Confederates. The Federals probed but found no substantial opposition. The ensuing skirmish resulted in the wounding of Confederate Brigadier-General Moxley Sorrel. The Federals abandoned their vulnerable position on the Boydton Plank Road and moved southwest to occupy the Vaughan Road crossing of Hatcher’s Run.
Meade told Grant that his “idea was to hold it permanently by a strong line, which a small force can hold, if we moved farther to the left.” Grant replied that since Meade was closer to the action, he knew “better than the people at City Point what line the troops should occupy.” Warren reported at 5:30 p.m. that “we have regained most of the ground we held yesterday, and drawn the artillery fire from the enemy’s works, and we can hold the south side of Hatcher’s Run toward Dabney’s Mill so long as may be required.”
General Robert E. Lee, commanding the Confederate army, learned on the morning of the 8th that the Federals had withdrawn to the Vaughan Road crossing. This indicated that the Federal thrust to cut his supply line was over. Lee therefore ordered his freezing troops to return to their camps. In this three-day fight, the Federals sustained 1,539 casualties (171 killed, 1,181 wounded, and 187 missing) out of some 35,000 engaged; the Confederates had about 14,000 engaged with casualties unknown, as the commanders in the field did not submit a report.
Like all Federal offensives during the Petersburg campaign thus far, this ended with a repulse. But this battle exposed weakness among the Confederates. In fighting on the 5th, they were unable to launch a counterattack until 5 p.m., too late to do any substantial damage to the enemy. Even worse, word spread that several Confederate units refused to charge, which Lee reportedly “wept like a child” when he heard it. On the 6th, Major-General John B. Gordon’s Confederates buckled the Federal line but failed to break it. And the Confederate cavalry was out foraging far away from Petersburg and was unable to get back in time to contribute to the fight.
The Federals were now three miles closer to the South Side Railroad, the last railway supplying the Confederates in Petersburg. This meant that Lee now had to defend 37 miles of trench lines with only 46,398 men “present for duty.” And this number included many who were too sick for active service. Lee was forced to reduce his strategic reserve from three divisions to just one. He wrote to Secretary of War John C. Breckinridge:
“All the disposable force of the right wing of the army has been operating against the enemy beyond Hatcher’s Run since Sunday (the 5th). Yesterday, the most inclement day of the winter, they had to be retained in line of battle, having been in the same condition the two previous days and nights. I regret to be obliged to state that under these circumstances, heightened assaults, and fire of the enemy, some of the men had been without meat for three days, and all were suffering from reduced rations and scant clothing, exposed to battle, cold, hail and sleet.
“I have directed Colonel Cole, chief commissary, who reports that he has not a pound of meat at his disposal, to visit Richmond and see if nothing can be done. If some change is not made and the commissary department reorganized, I apprehend dire results. The physical strength of the men, if their courage survives, must fail under this treatment. Our cavalry has to be dispersed for want of forage… Taking these facts in connection with the paucity of our numbers, you must not be surprised if calamity befalls us.”
References
- 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.
- Civil War Trust: Battle of Hatcher’s Run
- Foote, Shelby, The Civil War, A Narrative: Red River to Appomattox. New York: Vintage Civil War Library, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group (Kindle Edition), 2011.
- Freeman, Douglas Southall, Lee. Scribner, (Kindle Edition), 2008.
- Korn, Jerry, Pursuit to Appomattox: The Last Battles. 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.
- Wert, Jeffry D. (Patricia L. Faust ed.), Historical Times Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Civil War. New York: Harper & Row, 1986.
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