Richmond was not the original capital of the Confederacy, but became the capital after Virginia seceded from the Union in April of 1861. Richmond and neighboring Petersburg were major industrial hubs with rail lines connecting to points near and far and the James River to further move supplies in and out of the area. The rivers surrounding the city made defending it somewhat easier as well. Because of the strategic importance of Richmond, it would be the focus of several major campaigns during the war.
Our visit started at Gaines Mill Farm which saw some of the worst fighting of the Seven Days Battle during the Peninsula Campaign of 1862. This battle was the first in which Robert E. Lee had command of the Army of Northern Virginia following the wounding of Joseph Johnston. Lee’s ability to hold off George McClellan and his Union forces would direct the war away from Richmond and back to Northern Virginia to Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville which we visited several weeks ago.
From there, the war would move north into Maryland at Antietam and even further north to Gettysburg before returning to the Fredericksburg area in 1864. With Ulysses S. Grant now in charge of the Union Army, they would now push on towards the Confederate capital despite the heavy losses they suffered. Grant and Lee’s armies would engage at the North Anna River and then again at Cold Harbor. While there isn’t much to the battlefield at Cold Harbor these days, the trenches dug by both sides are well preserved, and the Killing Fields whisper of the horrors of June 3rd, 1864 when over 6,000 Federals were killed or wounded in less than an hour. Both armies were finally starting to understand the importance of trench warfare.
Grant didn’t give up there though, but pushed further south, convinced that if he could take the town of Petersburg then Richmond would surely fall as well. Both armies dug in and the 10 month Siege of Petersburg began. General Grant took up residence at City Point near the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers on the aptly named Appomattox Plantation. President Lincoln would visit him there on several occasions, and spent two of the last three weeks of his life in and around Petersburg. After Petersburg finally fell on April 2nd, 1865 the Confederate government would flee Richmond in the middle of the night. The following day, April 3rd, Union troops marched into Richmond and occupied the city. Lee would gather his men and march west, hoping to head south into North Carolina and regroup. Unlike his predecessors, Grant wasn’t going to let him go. The Union Army was in hot pursuit and would finally break Lee’s army at Appomattox less than a week later. But that’s the story for next week’s installment of the Civil War Chronicles.
Our visit to these battlefields was more rushed than previous ones because there was so much to see and Richmond is over two hours from Washington DC. We did visit all three of these major battlefields though and also three National Cemeteries at Cold Harbor, City Point and Poplar Grove near Petersburg. We were, as always, saddened to see how many graves there were and how many unknown soldiers were laid to rest in these cemeteries.
The photos below come from a recent visit to the battlefields of the greater Richmond/Petersburg Area. With the exception of the first few from Gaines Mill which was important to the Peninsula Campaign of 1862, most of these battles were part of the 1864 Overland Campaign. This long, brutal and bloody series of battles would eventually lead to the capture of Petersburg and the fall of Richmond which set the stage for the surrender of the Army of the Potomac at Appomattox. Click the link below to see my post on Appomattox. Civil War Chronicles will trace the major battles of the Eastern Theater of the war through photos and brief histories. Click on any photo to enlarge it. All photos are available for sale and licensing. For more information, check out the National Park Service’s Richmond and Petersburg Battlefield website HERE and HERE.
