RESERVOIR HILL, WHERE KAUTZ’S ADVANCE WAS STOPPED, JUNE 9, 1864.
the Confederates a concealed and convenient way hy which either wing of their lines could he reinforced hy troops from the other. (From a photograph made in 1886.)
The spires of Petersburg are seen to the left of the reservoir. In front of the reservoir is the ravine of Lieutenant’s Creek that encircles the eastern outskirts of the city and afforded
cavalry had to march took ־up more time than was anticipated, and the line was not carried until just before noon of the 9th, and General Gillmore, having exhausted his patience, was far on his way back to City Point at that time. The line, where the Jerusalem road entered it, was held by about two hundred Second Class militia, and was easily carried, and had the infantry been at hand to support the cavalry Petersburg could have been taken and held at this time. The Cavalry Division, however, had only about thirteen hundred serviceable men on this occasion, and could not hold the advantage gained without sufficient infantry support. The advance penetrated to the water-works, where it was confronted by a battery in position, and the rear of the cavalry was threatened by the enemy holding the line on the City Point front, and was therefore compelled to retire with the captured prisoners, and returned to Bermuda Hundred, where we arrived after dark. Shortly after this affair General Gillmore was relieved from the command of the Tenth Corps.
On the 15th of June, the Eighteenth Corps under General W. F. Smith having rejoined Butler, after its detachment to Cold Harbor, another effort was made to take Petersburg, with this difference in the plan, that while the cavalry should distract the enemy as much as possible in the direction of the Jerusalem plank-road, the Eighteenth Corps was to carry the line on the City Point side. The cavalry, having driven in the enemy’s pickets on the City Point road, moved to the left and was engaged the entire day exposed mainly to artillery fire, without any apparent action on the part of the Eighteenth Corps. We believed ourselves again deserted, and at seven in the evening the cavalry was withdrawn, and the column was just fairly on the return when the noise of the assault so long expected broke upon us about four miles to our right. It was all over in a few moments, and, as we subsequently learned, General Smith had carried the entire line in his front. The Army of the Potomac began to arrive on the night of the 15th, and was on hand to support the Eighteenth Corps in the position it had captured. . . .
Meanwhile, Beauregard had strengthened the garrison by drawing troops from the defenses of Richmond. On the 17th the Fifth Corps reached Petersburg and the assaults were pressed all along the line. Burnside carried an advanced position and intrenched it, though losing heavily in the operation. On the 18th Lee’s troops arrived, and the Union assaults made that day with great vigor, especially by Hancock, were decisively repulsed. Siege lines were then established and gradually extended east and south of the city. Butler’s intrenched position at Bermuda Hundred became a base for extended movements north of the James,which gradually enveloped Richmond on the east.
FIRST ATTACKS ON PETERSBURG.
BY AUGUST V. KAUTZ, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. A.
Commanding tlie Cavalry Division, Army of the James.
Cavalry Division of the Army of the James s organized in the last days of April, 1864. rough the personal application of Lieutenant-General Grant I ־was selected and promoted to be Brigadier-General of Volunteers to organize and command it. I found the troops of which it was to be made up encamped in rear of Portsmouth, Va., picketing the line of the Blackwater River, on the 20th of April. As first organized it was arranged as follows: First Brigade, 3d New York, and 1st District of Columbia Cavalry, Colonel S. H. Mix commanding. Second Brigade, 11th and 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry, Colonel S. P. Spear commanding. A section of 3-inch rifles of the 4th Wisconsin Battery was temporarily assigned. The division numbered less than 2800 men, all told. . . .
On the night of the 8th of June, General Butler having perfected a plan for the capture of Petersburg, the eavalry moved in conjunction with a brigade of white troops under Colonel J. R. Hawley and a part of Hinks’s colored division; the whole commanded by General Gillmore. The infantry was expected to threaten Petersburg from the City Point road, while the eavalry made a detour to the Jerusalem plank-road, where the enemy’s line was believed to be weak. It was agreed that if the cavalry carried this line, General Gillmore was to assault the line in his front. The distance the
UNION BATTERY NEAR DUNN’S HOUSE, PETERSBURG. From a war-time photograph.
THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG,
AND THE BATTLE OF THE CRATER.
ing from Suffolk, joined on tbe 10th, after destroying the bridges on the Weldon road, south of Petersburg, and delaying reinforcements for Beauregard. After intrenching Bermuda Hundred, Butler destroyed the railroad between Richmond and Petersburg, and on the 13th and 14th his troops carried a portion of the first line of defenses at Drewry’s Bluffs, near Richmond. On the 16th, Beauregard attacked Bntler and forced him back to his intrenchments in the narrow neck of land between the Appomattox and the James. Beauregard intrenched in front of Bntler in a manner which enabled him to hold the line with a slight force and spare the bulk of his army for the defense of Richmond. The Eighteenth Corps of Butler’s army reinforced Grant at Cold Harbor [see p. 254].
On June 9 Butler sent tbe Tenth Corps, under General Q. A. Gillmore, and Kautz’s eavalry to attack Petersburg [see following]. Gillmore and Kautz returned to Bermuda Hundred after their fruitless errand. While the Army of the Potomac was crossing the James on the 14th and 15th of June [see p. 255], Smith’s corps, which had rejoined Butler, marched on Petersburg and assaulted the outer line of defenses late on the 15th, carrying them for a distance of two miles and a half in the northeast of the city. Hancock and Burnside reached the field that night, and on the night of the 16th the assaults were renewed, and portions of the Confederate second line were captured.
NARRATIVE OF EVENTS.
THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.—1. SHARP-SHOOTERS ON THE LINE OF THE EIGHTEENTH CORPS. 2. BIVOUAC OF THE FIFTH CORPS IN THE RIFLE-PITS.
The Union government obtained a foothold in southeastern Virginia by the Confederate abandonment of Norfolk and Suffolk, during McClellan’s advance up the Peninsula in 1862. Petersburg, however, was an important link in the line of communications between Richmond and the Carolinas, and was early placed in a state of defense.
In April, 1864, General Beauregard assumed command of the Confederate department which included Petersburg, and began to collect forces from the coast for operations along the James River, in anticipation of an attack hy Grant south of Richmond. Simultaneous with the movement of the Army of the Potomac from the Rapidan, May 4, the Army of the James, under General B. F. Butler, sailed from Fortress Monroe up James River, and seized City Point and Bermuda Hundred.
The cavalry division under General A. V. Kautz, march-
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