Continuously throughout the night following the Battle of Five Forks,
the Union artillery played upon the Confederate earthworks and dropped
shells into the city. Troops were prepared for a general assault ordered
for the following dawn. At 4:40 a.m., April 2, 1865, a frontal attack
began with the sound of a signal gun from Fort Fisher. A heavy ground
fog added to the confusion as the Federals drove in the Confederate
pickets, cut away the abatis, and stormed over the works.
The story of the fighting along the Petersburg front on that spring
Sunday is one of Union success over stout Confederate resistance. Maj.
Gen. Horatio G. Wright’s Union VI Corps broke through the works defended
by troops of A. P. Hill’s Corps and rolled up the Confederate line to
right and left, while several regiments rushed on toward the Southside
Railroad. Other elements of Grant’s army swept away the remnants of the
Confederate lines along Hatcher’s Run. General Hill was killed early in
the day by a Union soldier near the Boydton Plank Road while on the way
to rally his men at Hatcher’s Run.
The desperateness of the Southern position was shown when, about 10
a.m., Lee telegraphed President Davis to inform him of the turn of
events at Petersburg. The message read: “I advise that all preparations
be made for leaving Richmond tonight.” Davis received the message while
attending Sunday services at St. Paul’s Church. He left immediately,
destroying the calm of worship, to prepare for evacuating the capital.
The flight of the Confederate government was promptly begun.
By midday the entire outer line to the west of Petersburg had been
captured, with the exception of Fort Gregg. The city was now completely
surrounded except to the north. The left of the Union line finally
rested on the bank of the Appomattox River after months of strenuous
effort.
It now became apparent to Lee that he must hold an inner line west of
Petersburg until nightfall, when it would be possible for him to retreat
from the city. While gray-clad troops were forming along this line built
on the banks of Old Indian Town Creek, the defenders of Fort Gregg put
up a stubborn delaying action against the Northern advance.
Approximately 300 men and two pieces of artillery met an onslaught of
5,000 Northerners. The outcome of the struggle was determined by the
numbers in the attacking force, but the capture of Fort Gregg occurred
only after bitter hand-to-hand combat. The purpose of the defense had
been accomplished, however, for a thin but sturdy line running behind
them from Battery 45 to the Appomattox River had been manned.
Temporarily, at least, street fighting within Petersburg had been
avoided.
Blows directed at other points, such as Fort Mahone on the Jerusalem
Plank Road, were slowed after troops of Maj. Gen. John G. Parke’s IX
Corps had captured 12 guns and 400 yards of the Confederate line to the
right and left of the road. Desperate counterattacks by Gordon’s
Confederates kept the Federals from exploiting this breakthrough. Yet
there was no doubt in the minds of Lee and other Southern leaders that
all hope of retaining Petersburg and Richmond was gone. It was obvious
that, if the lines held the Union army in check on April 2, they must be
surrendered on the morrow. The object was to delay until evening, when
retreat would be possible.
The close of the day found the weary Confederates concentrating within
Petersburg and making all possible plans to withdraw. Lee had issued the
necessary instructions at 5 o’clock that afternoon. By 8 p.m. the
retreat was under way, the artillery preceding the infantry across the
Appomattox River. Amelia Court House, 40 miles to the west, was
designated as the assembly point for the troops from Petersburg and
Richmond.
Grant had ordered the assault on Petersburg to be renewed early on April
3. It was discovered at 3 a.m. that the Southern earthworks had been
abandoned; an attack was not necessary. Union troops took possession of
the city shortly after 4 o’clock in the morning. Richmond officially
surrendered 4 hours later.
President Lincoln, who had been in the vicinity of Petersburg for more
than a week, came from army headquarters at City Point that same day for
a brief visit with Grant. They talked quietly on the porch of a private
house for 1½ hours before the President returned to City Point. Grant,
with all of his army, except the detachments necessary to police
Petersburg and Richmond and to protect City Point, set out in pursuit of
Lee. He left Maj. Gen. George L. Hartsuff in command at Petersburg.
Petersburg had fallen, but it was at a heavy price. In the absence of
complete records, the exact casualties will never be known, but in the
10-month campaign at least 42,000 Union soldiers had been killed,
wounded, and captured, while the Confederates had suffered losses of
more than 28,000. Although the northern forces had lost more men than
their opponents, they had been able to replenish them more readily.
Moreover, Grant had been prepared to utilize the greater resources at
his disposal, and the Petersburg campaign had been turned by him into a
form of relentless attrition which the Southern army had not been able
to stand. The result had been the capture of Petersburg and Richmond,
but more important, it had led to the flight of the remnants of the once
mighty Army of Northern Virginia.
[Illustration: _Fort Mahone after its capture, 1865._]
[Illustration: _Deserted Confederate huts on the abandoned
Petersburg line._]
On the Sunday following the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, Lee’s
troops were cut off at Appomattox Court House, destroying any hopes they
might have had for uniting with Johnston in North Carolina. In this
small Virginia town nearly 100 miles west of Petersburg, the Army of
Northern Virginia, now numbering little more than 28,000, surrendered to
the Union forces. Within a week of the fall of Petersburg the major
striking force of the Confederacy had capitulated. General Johnston
surrendered his army to General Sherman in North Carolina on April 26.
By early June 1865, all Confederate forces had been surrendered, and the
Civil War was over.
[Illustration: _Union soldiers on Sycamore Street in Petersburg,
April 1865. For these men, basking in the aftermath of a successful
campaign, the war is almost over. To the west, General Sheridan’s
cavalry is racing to cut off the retreating Southern army. “If the
thing is pressed,” Sheridan tells Grant, “I think Lee will
surrender.” Says Lincoln: “Let the thing be pressed.”_]
[Illustration: _On April 3, 1865, with Petersburg in Union hands at
last, General Grant issued orders sending off the Armies of the
Potomac and the James in pursuit of Lee. While the photographer was
taking this picture, showing a Federal wagon train leaving the city
to join in the chase, the remnants of Lee’s army were marching
toward a little crossroad village named Appomattox Court House._]