Booknotes: A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2

New Arrival:

• A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill by A. Wilson Greene (UNC Press, 2025).

The long-awaited second installment of A. Wilson Greene's epic three-volume series A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg has arrived. The excellent from top to bottom A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 1: From the Crossing of the James to the Crater arrived on our doorsteps back in 2018, so powers of recall will have to be sharp in order to pick up on the full range of recurring themes (and hopefully the Volume 1 review linked just above will assist in that area to some degree).

As stated in the Preface, A Campaign of Giants - The Battle for Petersburg, Volume 2: From the Crater's Aftermath to the Battle of Burgess Mill covers the period "between August 1 and the end of October." Thus, it encompasses the "Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Petersburg Offensives, all entailing concurrent efforts south of the Appomattox River and north of the James River. August also witnessed one of the war's greatest acts of sabotage, while in September the Confederate cavalry conducted a spectacular raid behind Union lines" (pp. xii-xiii). "But as winter approached, Grant had captured one of Lee’s primary supply routes and extended the lines around Petersburg and Richmond to some thirty-five miles."

If the past few decades of Petersburg Campaign scholarship haven't already disabused you of the common notion that its ten months were generally lacking in operational and tactical-level features of interest, Greene's series should be thoroughly convincing. As was the case with Volume 1, Volume 2 enhances its narrative through extensive map coverage, too. From the description: "Supported by thirty-four detailed maps, Greene’s narrative chronicles these bloody engagements using many previously unpublished primary accounts from common soldiers and ranking officers alike. The struggle for Petersburg is often characterized as a siege, but Greene’s narrative demonstrates that it was dynamic, involving maneuver and combat equal in intensity to that of any major Civil War operation."

In a nice touch, Greene dedicates this volume to Richard Sommers, who passed away the year following Volume 1's release. Grant and Lee were the giants who actually fought the campaign, but Sommers was also a giant, albeit of a different sort. Through his masterwork Richmond Redeemed and beyond, Sommers established himself as the dean of Petersburg Campaign historians, his work influencing all who followed in his footsteps.