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(Petersburg--Second Assualt)

Second Assault on Petersburg

June 15-18, 1864
City of Petersburg, VA
Campaign: Siege of Richmond and Petersburg

Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant and Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, USA
Gen. Robert E. Lee and Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, CSA

Grant had about 62,000 men and the Confederates had roughly 42,000. 

Casualties were heavy: the Union lost about 8,150 and the South over 3,200.
 
Marching from Cold Harbor, Meade�s Army of the Potomac crossed the James River on transports and a 2,200-foot long pontoon bridge at Windmill Point. Butler�s leading elements (XVIII Corps and Kautz�s cavalry) crossed the Appomattox River at Broadway Landing and attacked the Petersburg defenses on June 15. The 5,400 defenders of Petersburg under P.G.T. Beauregard were driven from their first line of entrenchments back to Harrison Creek.

After dark the XVIII Corps was relieved by Hancock�s II Corps. On June 16, the II Corps captured another section of the Confederate line; on the 17th, the IX Corps gained more ground. Beauregard stripped the Howlett Line (opposite Butler at Bermuda Hundred) to defend the city, and Lee rushed reinforcements to Petersburg from the Army of Northern Virginia. The II, XI, and V Corps from right to left attacked on June 18 but were repulsed with heavy casualties. By then Lee had moved more troops to Petersburg, and the Confederate works were heavily manned; the greatest opportunity to capture Petersburg without a siege was lost.

The siege of Petersburg began, to last almost ten months.

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(Petersburg--Second Assualt)