29 March 1865 A.D. Appomattox Campaign Begins
29 March 1865 A.D. Appomattox Campaign Begins
Editors. “Appomattox campaign begins.” History. 2009. http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/appomattox-campaign-begins. Accessed 27 Mar
2015.
On this day in 1865, the final campaign
of the Civil War begins in Virginia when Union troopsunder General Ulysses S.
Grant move against the Confederate trenches around Petersburg. General Robert
E. Lee’s outnumbered Rebels were soon forced to evacuate the city and begin a
desperate race west.
Eleven months earlier, Grant moved his
army across the Rapidan River in northern Virginia and began the bloodiest
campaign of the war. For six weeks, Lee and Grant fought along an arc that
swung east of the Confederate capital at Richmond. Theyengaged insome of the
conflict’s bloodiest battles at Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor
before settling into trenches for a siege of Petersburg, 25 miles south of
Richmond. The trenches eventually stretched all the wayto Richmond, and during
the ensuing months the armies glowered at each other across a no man’s land.
Periodically, Grant launched attacks against sections of the Rebel defenses,
but Lee’s men managed to fend them off.
Time was running out for Lee, though.
His army was dwindling in size to about 55,000, while Grant’s continued to
grow–the Army of the Potomac now had more than 125,000 men ready for service.
On March 25, Lee attempted to split the Union lines when he attacked Fort
Stedman, a stronghold along the Yankee trenches. His army was beaten back, and
he lost nearly 5,000 men. On March 29, Grant seized the initiative, sending
12,000 men past the Confederates’ left flank and threatening to cut Lee’s
escape route from Petersburg. Fighting broke out there, several miles southwest
of the city. Lee’s men could not arrest the Federal advance. On April 1, the
Yankees struck at Five Forks, soundly defeating the Rebels and leaving Lee no
alternative. He pulled his forces from their trenches and raced west, followed
by Grant. It was a race that even the great Lee could not win. He surrendered
his army on April 9, 1865,at Appomattox Court House.
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