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202 The American Civil WarBeauregard wrote, 'was clearly at the mercy
of the Federal commander.'
For two more days, Grant's troops
swarmed around Petersburg without making
a decisive move. Early on 18 June, the first
men from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
finally arrived, and Lee himself reached the
town before noon. The Confederates bought
time by abandoning their outer works on
the 18th, leaving the first Federal attack to
dissipate in a confusing complex of
empty trenches.
When the blue-clad legions reformed and
moved forward again, they attacked without
concert - and without success. The First
Maine Heavy Artillery, which Grant had
extracted from a cozy post in the quiet forts
around Washington and sent into the line
with muskets, was butchered. More than
630 of the Maine men fell in an utterly
hopeless assault. During the entire Civil War,
no regiment suffered as many losses in one
For 10 months beginning in mid-June 1864, the war in
Virginia swung around the pivot of Petersburg. The roads
and railroads leading through Petersburg to Richmond
became the Confederate capital's final lifeline. For weeks in
early June the city lay virtually undefended, but the first
Federal raiders suffered a repulse at the hands of old men
and youngsters beyond the age limits for regular army
service. During 15-18 June, uncoordinated attacks failed to
break into Petersburg despite being opposed by only a
tiny handful of Southern troops. Thereafter the fighting
became a deadly struggle for the railroads. Grant pushed
columns west, gradually closing off Confederate use of the
Jerusalem Plank Road, then the Weldon Railroad, and
eventually the Boydton Plank Road. If he could reach the
South Side Railroad, Petersburg and Richmond would be
strangled. The winter of 1864-65 closed in before Grant
could accomplish that final measure.engagement. One of the minority who
survived unscathed described the experience:
'The earth was literally torn up with iron and
lead. The field became a burning, seething,
crashing, hissing hell, in which human
courage, flesh, and bone were struggling withThe Battles around Petersburg, June-October 1864