Booknotes: Lee Besieged

New Arrival:

• Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18–July 1, 1864 by John Horn (Savas Beatie, 2025).

It's easy to see why John Horn is one of the authors that A. Wilson Greene singles out for special acknowledgment in his epic multi-volume history of the 1864-65 Richmond-Petersburg Campaign. After all, Horn was putting out Petersburg titles long before the topic's recent upsurge in interest and coverage. His volume addressing the events of August 1864 ranks among the better entries in H.E. Howard's classic Virginia Civil War Battles and Leaders series, and his Petersburg Campaign contribution to Combined Books's Great Campaigns series of overviews was a staple of used bookstores way back when. A big part of Horn's more recent return to prominence is his partnership with Savas Beatie, which reissued in 2015 a newly revised and expanded version of Horn's Howard series book on Grant's Fourth Offensive and published Horn's regimental history of the 12th Virginia (the "Petersburg Regiment") in 2019. Their latest collaboration is Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18–July 1, 1864, another impressive-looking effort.

Grant's Second Offensive, which came on the heels of the mid-June attacks that failed to achieve their goal of capturing Petersburg and forcing the evacuation of Richmond, was arguably "one of the most dramatic operations of the entire war." From the description: "To pave the way for success, Grant brought the city’s bridges under the fire of his siege guns to slow the transfer of enemy trips in and out of Petersburg. He also seized a bridgehead at Deep Bottom on James River’s north bank to draw Confederate forces out of Petersburg by menacing Richmond. Next, he took more ambitious measures by sending infantry to hem in Petersburg from the Appomattox River below the city to the Appomattox above. The move was designed to cut the critical Weldon and South Side railroads and force the Rebels to abandon Petersburg and Richmond. As his infantry went to work, his cavalry set out to sever the Confederate railroads below Petersburg to cut off supplies and reinforcements from the south and west."

By seizing the bridgehead on the north bank of the James River while also sweeping below Petersburg, this offensive marked the initiation of what would develop into a months-long series of concurrent large-scale attacks against the defenses and lines of communication into and between both Richmond and Petersburg, the object being to stretch Confederate lines to the breaking point and force a decisive breakthrough on either end of the line. While progress would be made, the ultimate prize eluded the federals until the following spring.

Among a number of factors, fierce Confederate opposition played a major part in keeping the federals out of both cities. Lee's army, though heavily depleted over the course of the Overland Campaign, remained a highly potent opponent. More from the description: During the Second Offensive detailed in Horn's study, "Lee and his infantry division commander William Mahone marched to meet the enemy, and in a stunning turn of events, routed Grant’s foot soldiers at Jerusalem Plank Road. Together, Confederate cavalry under Wade Hampton and Mahone’s infantry smashed Grant’s troopers at the battles of Sappony Church and First Reams Station. Thousands of Federal prisoners flooded into Confederate camps." The grind would go on.

The Second Offensive was covered very well in the first volume of Greene's A Campaign of Giants trilogy (which just completed its second part), but, as far as I know, this book is the first major standalone treatment of those events. In support of Horn's detailed narrative is a whopping set of forty maps. Contained in the appendix section are strength and casualty tables along with orders of battle.