The fighting 203The brave but hopeless charge of the 1st Maine Heavy
Artillery at Petersburg, 18 June 1864.The Maine unit
lost more men here in a single battle than any other
regiment on either side during the entire war (Painting
by Don Troiani, http://www.historicalartprints.com))
an impossibility ... In ten minutes those who
were not slaughtered had returned.' The next
morning a dense fog lifted to reveal a 'field of
slaughter, strewn thick with the blue-coated
bodies ... decomposing in the fierce rays of a
Southern sun.'
While the bitter Maine veteran gazed
across a field covered with his friends'
bodies, major elements of Lee's Army of
Northern Virginia were filing steadily into
the defenses. Those sturdy troops would not
be routed from their entrenchments by any
kind of frontal assault. Petersburg had been
saved, and for more than nine months
would stand, with Richmond, as the last
major Confederate citadel in Virginia.
The Crater
When the wretchedly managed Federal
assaults of 15-18 June ended in an
ineffectual welter of blood, Grant faced the
necessity to begin a siege. He had lost more
than 10,000 men in the awkward attempt to
batter his way into Petersburg, as against
appreciably fewer than half as many
Confederate casualties. With characteristic
determination, Grant quickly arranged to
extend his lines southwestward across Lee's
front. His purpose in this and several
subsequent initiatives was to snap Southern
railroads and other lines of communication
and supply. At the same time, his almost
limitless resources in men and materiel
would benefit from ever-longer front lines.
Eventually the limited Confederate strength
would be stretched to the breaking point.
Execution of those two initiatives constituted
the story of the next nine months.