Description:

Grant Ulysses



Ulysses S Grant Rare Appomattox Campaign Correspondence to Meade


Incredibly Historic Autograph Note from Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant to Maj. Gen. George Meade


In full:


“6:40 am, April 2d, 1865


Maj Gen Meade


Is Humphrey [sic] engaged yet?


U.S. Grant

Lt. Gen”


This note, written by Lt. Gen. U.S. Grant at the fall of Petersburg and at the beginning of the end of the Confederacy 7 Days later.
It simply asks Meade, in his usual clipped manner, if Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys is moving toward Grant’s goal cutting o? General Robert E. Lee’s retreat by way of the South Side and Richmond railroads.


Ulysses S. Grant had besieged Petersburg for ten months, but as April 1865 opened, the Army of the Potomac under its commander, George G. Meade, was ?nally in a position to break through. Both Grant and Meade had been ill, Grant almost constantly con?ned to his bed. The stress levels for both were at a peak.


When the decisive Battle of Five Forks ended in rout, Colonel Horace Porter, General Grant's aide and observer at the battle, started back for Grant's headquarters at about 7:30 p.m. on April 1. Porter excitedly reported the victory and told Grant that over 5,000 prisoners were taken. The victory at Five Forks opened the road to the South Side Railroad for the Union force. As soon as Grant learned of the victory, at about 8:00 p.m., he ordered Major General Meade to have Major Generals Humphreys and Parke ready to push against the Confederate lines to keep the Confederates from escaping from Petersburg and converging on Sheridan's force. Grant told the o?cers at his headquarters that he had ordered a general assault along the lines.


Major Generals Andrew Humphreys with the II Corps, Horatio Wright with the VI Corps, John Parke with the IX Corps and Edward Ord, commander of the Army of the James, with Major General John Gibbon's XXIV Corps had been planning the attack scheduled for 4:00 a.m. on April 2, 1865 for three days. Grant directed then to carry the trenches and forti?cations opposite their corps and move toward Petersburg. General Sheridan was instructed to start at dawn and move up the White Oak Road and all north of it to Petersburg as he had informed Grant that he would.


Meade asked Grant for clari?cation because Grant previously had ordered a 4:00 a.m. attack all along the line. Grant said both Humphreys and Parke should feel for a chance to push on that night, that Humphreys should send skirmishers forward and attack if the Confederates were leaving their positions. If the Confederates held their line, Grant said that Humphreys should send Miles's division down White Oak Road to reinforce Sheridan. Miles's and Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Gershom Mott's divisions from Humphreys corps attacked at once but could not do more than drive in the Confederate pickets as Confederate artillery opened up on them. Miles division was sent to Sheridan just before midnight but Mott's and Brigadier General William Hays's divisions continued probing the Confederate line. Meade sent forward four Union corps, with the VI Corps succeeding in breaking through the thinly manned Confederate lines. Flushed with success, the Union troops poured through the breach and turned the Southern ?anks, eventually gaining control of the entrenchments from Hatcher's Run to Boydton Plank Road.

Robert E. Lee, realizing that the loss of so much of his defensive perimeter had now doomed the city, issued orders to evacuate Petersburg. He sent word to his remaining commanders to hold as long as they could to allow an orderly retreat. Federal troops repeatedly attacked Fort Gregg (held by only 500 Confederate defenders), but failed to quickly seize the vital fort, allowing Lee time to establish an inner defensive line to protect his army's rear as it retired.


Grant turned his attention to the west, where the South Side Railroad had provided a vital last supply line for Lee's beleaguered troops. Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys's II Corps faced the forces of Maj. Gen. Henry Heth running from Hatcher's Run to White Oak Road. Heth's men constituted the extreme right ?ank of Lee's army. Nelson Miles's division had been sent to reinforce Philip Sheridan on the Union ?ank. Not needing the infantry support, Sheridan sent Miles back. Once the VI Corps had broken through, Humphreys was ordered to attack along his front. When the order came for Humphreys to attack, Heth had already begun to fall back to a secondary line. Humphreys only had one division available to attack. Not far from the battle?eld of Battle of Five Forks, his only available division easily pushed forward through light resistance and seized a salient in the Confederate line. When Miles' division of three brigades returned, it faced abandoned trenches. Humphreys wanted to immediately move against Heth, but Meade had ordered all the Union infantry to turn and face Petersburg. Humphreys responded by turning to the north, but left Miles behind to deal with Heth.

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