Qualla: Third Battle of Petersburg

Third Battle of Petersburg: Introduction

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mathew Benjamin Brady, Public domain. At 4:40 a.m. on Sunday, April 2, 1865, a single signal gun fired from the Union lines southwest of Petersburg. Behind it, twelve thousand men of Horatio Wright's Sixth Corps stood waiting in the dark, lying down in the cold mud so their silhouettes would not give them away. When the gun went off they rose and ran. By dawn they had broken through the Confederate earthworks that had held Grant's army at bay for nine months. By nightfall, Robert E. Lee's army was on the road west. Seven days later the war was over.

Image: Mathew Benjamin Brady | Public domain

Third Battle of Petersburg: The Breakthrough at Boydton Line

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Public domain. The Sixth Corps assault hit a thinly held section of the Boydton Plank Road line just before sunrise. The Confederate defenders, stretched along entrenchments thirty miles long, simply did not have enough men to hold everywhere. Wright's men carried the works, swept inward, and s...

Image: Public domain

Third Battle of Petersburg: Fort Gregg's Two Hours

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Pi3.124, CC BY-SA 4.0. The Confederate Alamo of Petersburg was Fort Gregg, a small earthwork redoubt two miles west of the city. About 300 Confederates, mostly Mississippians from Harris's Brigade and artillerymen, held it against assault by roughly 5,000 men of John Gibbon's XXIV Corps. The fight last...

Image: Pi3.124 | CC BY-SA 4.0

Third Battle of Petersburg: Lee's Telegram

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit various, Public domain. At about 10:30 a.m. Lee sent a telegram to Jefferson Davis in Richmond. He had been at services at St. Paul's Episcopal that morning when the message reached him; the legend that he was handed it during the liturgy is partly true, partly compressed for memory. The wire was direct...

Image: various | Public domain

Third Battle of Petersburg: Grant Meets Lincoln

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit various, Public domain. On the morning of April 3, Union troops entered Petersburg and Richmond. Grant had ordered a furious bombardment to begin at 5:00 a.m. that day in preparation for another assault, but at 3:00 a.m. his commanders had discovered the Confederate works empty. There would be no furthe...

Image: various | Public domain

Third Battle of Petersburg: What the Casualty Lists Hide

Sun, 31 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Thomas C Roche 1826-1895, Public domain. The official numbers for April 2 are roughly 3,900 Union casualties and an unknown but smaller number of Confederate losses, with thousands more taken prisoner as the lines collapsed. The numbers hide what the fighting actually was. A.P. Hill, killed almost casually by two privat...

Image: Thomas C Roche 1826-1895 | Public domain