Grant, if he reviewed the fruits of his campaign shortly after July 30,
could not have felt much comfort. Three hammering blows delivered
against Petersburg had failed. Moreover, two important railroads still
connected the city with the South. Lee, despite his numerically inferior
numbers, was still able to maintain a long line of defenses around
Petersburg and Richmond. Farther south, the Union outlook was brighter.
Ten days before the Battle of the Crater, final operations against
Atlanta had been begun by Sherman. On September 2 it was to fall, and
the march to the sea followed in 10 weeks.
Yet it was equally certain that Grant had accomplished an important
objective. By committing Lee’s weakened but still potent Army of
Northern Virginia to a defensive position in the area adjacent to
Richmond, he was immobilizing the South’s most powerful striking force.
Moreover, the Union failure at the crater decided the future direction
of the campaign to capture Petersburg. All Grant’s energy now turned to
extending his siege lines around the city and cutting Lee’s supply lines
in an attempt to force him out of his defenses.
The first step taken in this direction after July 30 was a strong effort
to capture the Weldon Railroad, which the Confederates had so nearly
lost in June. On August 16, Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren, Union V
Corps commander, received orders to attack, occupy, and hold the Weldon
Railroad 3 miles below the city.
The seizure of the objective was quickly accomplished on August 18, the
opening day of battle. More than a mile of track near Globe Tavern, an
old colonial inn, was soon in Union hands. Then Warren marched most of
his troops northward toward the city. They were in unfamiliar and
heavily wooded terrain where they were assailed by two Confederate
brigades led by Maj. Gen. Henry Heth. The Union troops were forced to
fall back a short distance and entrench. Here the V Corps was reinforced
by the IX Corps.
On the afternoon of the 19th, five brigades of Lt. Gen. A. P. Hill’s
Corps struck the Union infantry. Three of the brigades under Mahone
managed to slip in behind their opponents by taking advantage of the
concealment offered by the heavy growth of trees. They inflicted serious
losses and captured 2,500 prisoners. By nightfall, Warren had been
forced back one-half mile nearer his new headquarters at Globe Tavern.
[Illustration: _Globe Tavern, near the Weldon Railroad. During the
Battle for the Weldon Railroad, August 18-21, 1864, this building
was headquarters for Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren’s V Corps._]
August 20 was marked by comparative inactivity, although there was some
skirmishing in the morning. Throughout the following day A. P. Hill, who
had received reinforcements, threw his men at the Union positions around
the tavern. The attacks were in vain, for the new Union lines held.
General Lee arrived with more infantry brigades during the afternoon,
but after discussing the situation with his generals, he determined not
to renew the attack. By the end of the day Lee realized that the upper
portion of the Weldon Railroad had been lost and that any attempt to
regain it would be a needless sacrifice of manpower.
[Illustration: _Petersburg’s hungry defenders were delighted when
Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton’s Confederate horsemen rustled more than
2,000 cattle from the Union army in September 1864. Alfred Waud
sketched the raid for_ Harper’s Weekly.]
One sentence from a dispatch sent by Lee to the Confederate Secretary of
War on August 22 shows the seriousness of the loss of the railroad: “Our
supply of corn is exhausted today, and I am informed that the small
reserve in Richmond is consumed.” For a time the Confederate government
was able to utilize the Weldon Railroad as far as Stony Creek, 20 miles
below Petersburg, where supplies were transferred to wagons and hauled
around the left of the Northern army to Petersburg and Richmond. In
December the railroad line was destroyed below Stony Creek and
henceforth the beleaguered cities had only two direct rail
communications with the South—the Richmond and Danville Railroad out of
Richmond and the Southside from Petersburg.
On August 25, 2 days after the fighting at Globe Tavern had ended, the
Confederates scored a minor victory with a surprise attack. Their blow
was aimed at Hancock’s II Corps busily engaged in destroying railroad
tracks at Reams Station, nearly 5 miles below Globe Tavern. The II
Corps, containing large numbers of inexperienced recruits, was badly
beaten and more than 1,700 were taken prisoner. The Southern victory was
shortlived, for the destruction of their rail communications was
continued. The best that Lee could hope for in the future would be to
stem the Federal advance.
In mid-September, Maj. Gen. Wade Hampton, cavalry commander of the Army
of Northern Virginia since J. E. B. Stuart’s death in May, led a
remarkable raid of 4,000 mounted troops around the rear of the Union
army, now numbering 80,000. He succeeded in returning to Petersburg on
September 17 with about 2,400 head of cattle and more than 300
prisoners, while suffering losses of only 61 men in two engagements with
the enemy. Although this raised the morale of the Confederates, it did
not change the course of the campaign. The iron band being forged
outside their city was a reality, and Grant, a tenacious man, had not
loosened his grip.
[Illustration: _Federal soldiers in the trenches before Petersburg.
By 1864, most of the men of the Armies of the Potomac and the James
were veteran combat soldiers, but the strain of siege warfare
eventually affected even the most hardened of them. “It was hell
itself,” one soldier recalled, “and it is wondrous to me that so
many of us survived the event.”_]
[Illustration: _Constructing gabions for the attack on Petersburg.
When filled with earth, these cylindrical, basket-like objects
offered strong protection against enemy fire._]
[Illustration: _Federal pickets in front of Union Fort Sedgwick,
opposite Confederate Fort Mahone. Note how the gabions are being
used._]
[Illustration: _Rifled siege guns in Union Battery IV. Fire from
this battery helped to seal off the Confederate breakthrough at Fort
Stedman in March 1865._]
[Illustration: _Capt. James H. Cooper’s Battery, 1st Pennsylvania
Light Artillery, V Corps. While the men were standing to their guns
to have this picture taken, a Confederate battery, thinking the
Federals were preparing to fire, opened up on them. The famous Civil
War photographer Mathew B. Brady is standing with hands in pocket
beside the trail of the second gun._]