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For the next few weeks , we ’ll be covering the final days of the Civil War just 150 yr by and by . This is the sixth installment of the serial .
March 25-28, 1865: Last Hurrah, Final Words
In the last mean solar day of March 1865 the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia under Robert E. Lee made one final , desperate attempt to break out of the Siege of Petersburg – and almost succeeded , with a venturous nighttime attack concisely piercing the Union lines at the Battle of Fort Stedman on March 25 . But the attack soon dissipated in confusion as the rebel were thwarted by unfamiliar surroundings , return their enemy time to bring up reinforcements and convalesce the lost earth . Two days afterward , Abraham Lincoln had his last aspect - to - face meeting with his top air force officer , Ulysses S. Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman . His orders were clear : end the war as shortly as possible .
Battle of Fort Stedman
The problem was how to untangle the Army of Northern Virginia from its defensive place in front of Petersburg without being immediately assail by the much big Union Army of the Potomac . At this point Major General John B. Gordon suggested a bold plan : he would go a force of around 10,000 old-timer foot in a surprise , early sunrise attack on a thinly - held point in the Union line .
Gordon pointed out that the bulk of Grant ’s Union troops were now stretched out in a prospicient spark tracing the Confederate line southwest of Petersburg , while to the east of the city Fort Stedman was defend by a relatively sapless skeleton force . A breakthrough here would allow the rebel to threaten the Union provision hub at City Point , which would in turn force Grant to foreshorten his lines southwest of the city to counter the Confederate offensive . This , hopefully accompany by bedlam behind the Union blood , would give the eternal rest of the Confederate army a chance to slew away .
Lee agreed to Gordon ’s proposal and the last rebel offence of the warfare began at 4 am on the morning of March 25 , 1865 . After Confederate pioneer companies cleared justificative obstacles , an advance force of 300 elite troop stealthily approached the Union lookout man ( advance guard posts ) and overwhelmed them without a shooter fired ; some may have tricked the precaution by claiming to be deserters . Now with the mode cleared the repose of the rebel infantry could assault in force , pass on in silence for keep the chemical element of surprise ( below , the Union front lines near Fort Stedman ) .
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With number on their side for once , the Confederates storm a Union artillery battery and like a shot attacked Fort Stedman from the rear . George Kilmer , a Union military officer from New York , recalled what happened next : “ The Confederates climbed over the parapets and in at the porthole , and it was so dark that the fort could not distinguish their own men from the enemy . Finding it impossible to harbor the garrison , the policeman and men of the garrison who could get away took shelter on the outside of the parapets , and continued the fight with musket . ”
From Fort Stedman the rebel turned to each side and set about “ rolling up ” the Union ditch with flank attacks ; the independent attack pore on nearby Fort Haskell , but by now the alert was going up in the Union rank . With their covering blown there was no point in staying quiet , so now the Confederate heavy weapon unfold up . Kilmer described the chaotic scene :
Another Union soldier , Richard Clow , paint a standardized movie
However the rebel offense was already running into some unexpected obstacles – or rather , their absence . Gordon had planned to campaign on to entrance three more fort believe to be directly behind Fort Stedman , but the fort were nowhere to be seen ; it ferment out Confederates were mistaken about their location , reflecting the difficulties involve in battlefield reconnaissance mission at this time . Without their next objectives in mountain , the Confederate assault began to misplace impulse . Furthermore the defensive attitude works the rebels did contend to seize demonstrate to be a puzzling warren of intersecting earthworks ( below , a “ air-raid shelter ” at Fort Stedman ) . John C. Tidball , an artillery officer in the Union Army , identify the environment encounter by the Confederate attackers at Fort Stedman :
Meanwhile Union forces were already mobilise to retake Fort Stedman . Although there was later some dispute among Union officer about who should get the credit for turning the lunar time period ( the Confederate commanding officer Gordon was also known for “ magnify ” some particular in his later story of the conflict ) , Union troops from a number of units charged bravely in the face of spot blank shank and rifle flaming , some of it occur from their own enamour artillery .
Elisha Rhodes , a Union Colonel from Rhode Island , portrayed the Union counterattack at Fort Stedman in glowing terms : “ It was a superb lot : the longsighted line of work of infantry gradually close in on the front , the clouds of smoke that mark the line of products , the grand bang and the cheers of victory as the troops pass the ditch , mounted the parapet and planted their color . ” But the verity , as always , was much more fucking , as described by Milton A. Embick , a soldier from Pennsylvania : “ They embark on forward as though on dress parade , fire as they went , which I conceive was execution … their men plunging fore , lurch back , or sinking limp as they were bourgeon … ”
At the same prison term rebels were subjugate to a withering crossfire from Fort Haskell and Union artillery batteries . Kilmer recall the “ fearful debacle ” :
With Union stockpile hasten to the scene , it was reset the onrush had go wrong in its main aim , and the insurgent trounce a hasty retreat – so hasty , in fact , that the Union commanding officer seized the opportunity to reside their front - line sentry , bare of men for the attack on Fort Stedman . The Union soldiers quickly dug into the captured positions , giving them an splendid jumping - off point for an attack on the Reb defenses . Gordon ’s gamble had fail , and now the rebels would ante up the price .
Lincoln’s Last War Council
Two days after the Confederacy ’s last hooray at Fort Stedman , Lincoln met Grant and Sherman for what would prove to be the last time on March 27 - 28 , 1865 . Before the group meeting Lincoln ride to the Union positions outside Petersburg , where he witnessed part of the Battle of Fort Stedman and visited wounded Union soldiers . While he was doing this Sherman had to make a prolonged journeying up from North Carolina aboard a captured Confederate encirclement - runner .
The United States President then met his generals aboard River Queen ( the steamship on which Lincoln hadmetthe Confederate peace envoy extraordinary just a few months before ) anchor at City Point , Virginia ( top , a copy of “ The Peacemakers , ” originally painted by George P.A. Healy in 1868 ) . Alone together in the ship ’s sedan , over meetings on two serial days Lincoln need doubtfulness about their experience and , in typical fashion , say a few amusing anecdotes of his own . But harmonize to Admiral David Porter , who was also present on at least one of the two Clarence Day , the meetings were dominated by how to come on the end game of four years of unimaginable battue , and what to do with the vote out Confederacy afterwards .
Lincoln was pleased with the North ’s military progress , but also vex that Lee – ever the tricky passkey of battlefield strategy – would still somehow carry off to luxate out and get together up with Johnston in North Carolina , as he ’d just tried to do . Grant and Sherman tried to set his mind at balance , anticipate that Lee would n’t escape .
Lincoln also claim great pain to emphasise that the warfare would only end with southerly toleration of the abolishment of slavery as enacted by the Thirteenth Amendment . However , he also desire to end the war as rapidly as potential , and was unforced to be comparatively lenient towards the defeated rebels if they submit to these main demands . He also hoped to debar the requirement of “ pout up ” pocket of rebel ohmic resistance at great distance . accord to Sherman ’s later account , Lincoln seemed to prefer easygoing damage for Reconstruction :
Lincoln himself was clearly spent but determined to see the state of war through to its oddment , Sherman recalled : “ When at rest or listen , his legs and implements of war seemed to hang almost lifeless , and his case was care - worn and haggard , but the import he began to talk , his cheek lightened up , his grandiloquent form , as it were , spread out , and he was the very impersonation of estimable - humour and company . ”
Indeed , Lincoln was optimistic that the end of the war was close , saying there had been “ enough bloodshed , ” and hoped Grant and Sherman could bring their foes , Lee and Johnston , to terms at once . However , his generals respectfully demurred , venture that there would be at least one more major battle before the foe ’s will was broken . In fact Grant ’s plans were already in motion : the final , all - out rape on the rebel lines at Petersburg would start on March 29 .
See the previous entryhere . See all entrieshere .
