Robert E. Lee’s Confederates face significant reductions due to illness, casualties, and desertions while defending Petersburg and Richmond. Fighting erupts outside Richmond as Lee attempts to reclaim Fort Harrison.
Tag: Robert E. Lee
The Battle of Peebles’s Farm
While Federal forces attack the Confederate siege lines north of the James River, Ulysses S. Grant directs the Army of the Potomac to attack the Confederate line southwest of Petersburg.
The Battle of Chaffin’s Bluff
Benjamin F. Butler, commanding the Federal Army of the James, plans to send 20,000 men north to seize Confederate Forts Harrison and Gilmer, which make up a vital part of the Chaffin’s Bluff defenses southeast of the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia.
The State of the Confederacy
By this time, key defeats at Mobile Bay and Atlanta shift momentum in the war to the North and dampen southern morale.
The Second Battle of the Weldon Railroad Ends
The fighting that began between Federals and Confederates south of Petersburg on August 18 continues the next day over a section of the Weldon Railroad that the Federals will not relinquish to the Confederates.
The Second Battle of the Weldon Railroad
Fighting breaks out southwest of the Petersburg siege lines when Federals try moving beyond the Confederates’ flank to sever the Weldon Railroad.