Posted on 04/01/2009 6:10:38 AM PDT by mainepatsfan
April 1, 1865 Battle of Five Forks
Confederate General Robert E. Lee's supply line into Petersburg, Virginia, is closed when Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant collapse the end of Lee's lines around Petersburg. The Confederates suffer heavy casualties, and the battle triggered Lee's retreat from Petersburg as the two armies began a race that would end a week later at Appomattox Court House.
For nearly a year, Grant had laid siege to Lee's army in an elaborate network of trenches that ran from Petersburg to the Confederate capital at Richmond, 25 miles north. Lee's hungry army slowly dwindled through the winter of 1864-65 as Grant's army swelled with well-fed reinforcements. On March 25, Lee attacked part of the Union trenches at Fort Stedman in a desperate attempt to break the siege and split Grant's force. When that attack failed, Grant began mobilizing his forces along the entire 40-mile front. Southwest of Petersburg, Grant sent General Philip Sheridan against Lee's right flank.
Sheridan moved forward on March 31, but the tough Confederates halted his advance. Sheridan moved troops to cut the railroad that ran from the southwest into Petersburg, but the focus of the battle became Five Forks, a road intersection that provided the key to Lee's supply line. Lee instructed his commander there, General George Pickett, to "Hold Five Forks at all hazards." On April 1, Sheridan's men slammed into Pickett's troops. Pickett had his force poorly positioned, and he was taking a long lunch with his staff when the attack occurred. General Gouverneur K. Warren's V Corps supported Sheridan, and the 27,000 Yankee troops soon crushed Pickett's command of 10,000. The Union lost 1,000 casualties, but nearly 5,000 of Pickett's men were killed, wounded, or captured. During the battle, Sheridan, with the approval of Grant, removed Warren from command despite Warren's effective deployment of his troops. It appears that a long-simmering feud between the two was the cause, but Warren was not officially cleared of any wrongdoing by a court of inquiry until 1882.
The vital intersection was in Union hands, and Lee's supply line was cut. Grant now attacked all along the Petersburg-Richmond front and Lee evacuated the cities. The two armies began a race west, but Lee could not outrun Grant. The Confederate leader surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9.
last night I watched a BBC made movie on the IFC channel called C.S.A. Confederate States of America
It was history rewritten about what happens when the Confederacy wins the Civil War, Lincoln is kicked out of the country, the South arises as a friend to Hitler and practices an Aryan policy and slaves are commonplace in the 21st. century.
Weird, gotta love the Brits though they know drama.
Remember this little gem comment of yours....
That would come 11 years later.
Not off hand. Why not post the link?
I’m one of folks who think Custer, given his orders, the situation, and the information he had at the time, wasn’t the disater too many writers have claimed he is.
He was ill served by Reno, disobeyed by Benteen, and scapegoated by the higher command.
But a review of his entire career shows an exceptional cavalryman. By any standard for any time.
I agree. When you get the full backstory and do an actual terrain walk of the area, you see that Custer actually acted very reasonably. It seemed his biggest mistake was a lack of knowledge of the “human terrain” regarding the Sioux and their recent alliance and newfound aggression.
Custer’s life and career may not have been a military disaster, but his death certainly was one, and it was of his own making.
Raw deal. Easy to fix blame in hindsight, but at the time nobody would have predicted a repeat of Fetterman at Little Bighorn.
Custer was aggressive and more concerned about failing to catch Sitting Bull's braves than being annihilated.
Wrong place, wrong time, against an atypical Indian organization.
Sorry for the thread drift, but Custer was pretty competent despite his inglorious end.
When General Grant took over the as field commander of the entire US Army, leaving General Meade as the Army of the Potomac commanding general, he was faced with an army that lacked talent in the General officer corps, not only because of the McClellan influence, but because so many were also political appointments. General Grant seemed to understand the limitations President Lincoln was handing him, both militarily and politically, and used the Army of the Potomac as best he could, and that to brutally wear down General Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia in bloody clash after bloody clash.
As noted earlier, Warren alerted the Union Army of the exposed left flank at Little Round Top and whose action prevent the South from turning the Union flank. But General Warren was a micro-manager. At least once he frustrated General Grant’s request for swift action, earning him Grant’s mistrust, if not his ire.
At the action at Five Forks, General Sheridan failed to locate the Confederate line properly, giving Warren instructions to deploy his Corp about 3 miles East of where he should have. Unfortunately, a damaged bridge held Warren up for couple of hours, aggravating the easily excitable Sheridan. Once in the vicinity of five forks, Warren deployed his divisions perfectly for the supposed Confederate positions he faced, gave good clear instructions, and sent his Corp into the Confederate lines. Only the left most division made contact, while the other two division simply kept moving forward, even to the point of losing contact with the other Corp divisions.
Warren quickly realized what was going on, and seeing that his division commanders were failing to keep contact with the rest of the Corp ran off to find his divisions and get them pointed in the right direction. By doing so, he left his one engaged division on its own, obliging Sheridan to take control when things got sticky for them. Meanwhile, Warren caught up with his divisions and eventually turning them, landed in the Confederate rear changing a hard fought Union victory into a full route of the Confederates.
Unfortunately, the fiery Sheridan, only focused on having to take control of one of Warren’s division due to Warren’s absence, and as Sheridan was already equipped with Grant’s pre-approval to deal with Warren as he saw fit, relieved Warren on the spot.
It is a shame that General Warren was treated this way due to circumstances that he should not have been blamed for. The record shows that in a sea of mediocre generals, Warren could be counted as, at the very least, competent, and a far site better than most of Grant’s other corps commanders.
The NappyOne
Custer arrived near the village [15 miles] early on the 25th. He planned to recon, and attack early on the 26th, when Terry and Gibbons were supposed to be rendezvousing with the 7th. In reality, they didn't show up ‘til the 27th. So Custer would have been alone in any case.
Rear guard troopers found Indians on the 7th’s back trail on the morning of the 25th. Custer was forced to assume they were going to the village [they were returning to the reservation, it turned out]. Now the ‘don't let them escape’ part of the orders kicked in.
Custer's plan wasn't bad. Problems were that the intelligence he had been provided on Indian strength was off by at least half [the Indian agencies didn't tell the Army about all the reservation Sioux and Cheyenne who left to hunt buffalo with the hostiles]; the 7th was tired [men and horses], and Custer was forced to conduct and engaging action with no recon.
As to the battle itself, Reno stopped a 1/4 to 1/2 mile from his objective, dismounted his men, sacrificng 20% of his strength [horse handlers], and set up a skirmish line with an open left flank. He was then driven into some woods [a defensible position], panicked, and fled across the river up to Reno Hill.
Custer, meanwhile, sighting the village from the bluffs, and Reno's failure feinted toward the middle of the village after setting up a blocking position [Weir Hill or Point[?] and sent a messenger to Benteen, scouting toward the west to rejoin Custer with the ammo train, AT SPEED. Custer's nephew, riding initially with Benteen, made it in time to die with his uncles. Benteen, who hated Custer, proceeded at a more leisurely pace, and stopped altogether when he reached Reno. They did nothing while listening to Custer die some three miles away.
“Gettysburg would have been a different matter with Thomas J. Jackson instead of Richard Stoddard Ewell in command of Lee’s 3rd corps.”
Would it?
Would Jackson have attacked Culp’s Hill with night falling and an exhausted Corps after a day’s hard marching an an afternoon of fighting already?
While I agree he wouldn’t have sat still, even he would have been more likely to end-around to the woods on the left, than attack the hill directly.
I think the BIG difference had Jackson been there would have been the next day, with the Echelon attack under his control, ALL divisions would have stepped off as they were supposed to. He would have already scouted the woods to the east of Culp’s, and most likely been a loud advocate for Longstreet’s move AROUND the Round Tops, rather than over them.
EITHER move would have forced a redeployment of the cavalry to cover the flanks, especially on the Union Left to counter Longstreet moving in the open, which would have allowed Stewart’s End-around to have much better results on the third day.
Stonewall could have soundly whipped 27,000 yankees with half what Pickett had, even after marching them 30 miles overnight!
Which is why rightly his statue stands a top that hill. Sadly I suspect most visitors to the park have never heard of him.
Lee and Pickett met a few years after the war and according to a witness it wasn’t a very cordial reunion.
I spoke with one of the rangers at Gettysburg recently who told me there has been a recent uptick in the number of visitors asking for directions to the East Cavalry battlefield site. It’s good that aspect of the battle is finally getting the attention it deserves.
Left flank, not right.
So they just assumed that Germany still lost the First World War without American involvement?
Interestingly the man who finished first in the same West Point class that Custer finished last in was Patrick O’Rourke who’s OTHER charge at Little Round Top cost him his life.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.