Robert Fugate of American CWRT of London and Atlanta CWRT wrote the following positive review of my most recent book, Lee Besieged: Grant's Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18-July 1, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2025). Copies of the book are available by clicking repeatedly at https://tinyurl.com/msbpzzrz
Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18 – July 1, 1864 by John Horn
Lee Besieged is a recently released study of Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, an effort to extend the Union infantry’s envelopment of the city south-westward to further restrict Lee’s railroad communications and supply lines, paired with the Wilson-Kautz cavalry raid farther west to hit key bridges and rail lines south and southwest of Petersburg. John Horn is becoming a Petersburg specialist at the tactical level, having previously written The Siege of Petersburg: The Battles for the Weldon Railroad, August 1864 and The Petersburg Regiment. His new Lee Besieged book makes a good micro-level companion to A. Wilson Greene’s A Campaign of Giants, a massive operational level history of the Petersburg Campaign, with the second of three volumes having been released this year.
The writing here is focused on the regimental, brigade, and division level. The perspectives of Lee, Beauregard, Grant, and Meade are included but relatively briefly, to provide a framework for the on-the-ground action that Horn covers. Most of the Army of the Potomac mid-level leadership in the Second and Sixth Corps shows poorly, reflecting the exhaustion of the rank and file and demonstrating a lack of prudence on defense and a lack of initiative on offense. Solid officers like Francis Barlow and John Gibbon at the division level score badly at the First Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, and John Gibbon has two of his brigade commanders relieved and placed under arrest.
On the other hand, strong Confederate leadership enables William Mahone’s division to sweep the field, inflicting heavily disproportionate casualties while attacking, due to Mahone’s personal reconnaissance and deft handling of his brigades. One wonders that the Confederate troops could achieve what they did, while outnumbered; they certainly must have been at least as exhausted as their Union counterparts from the seven weeks of continuous fighting that preceded these actions. Mahone is well served by his brigadiers and by Captain Victor Girardey of his staff, who plays a significant role in the battle, which is just prior to his promotion all the way to brigadier general. Unfortunately for the Southerners, A.P. Hill misunderstands Mahone’s proposed plan of battle and misdirects Cadmus Wilcox’s attack, which means that the battle’s results are less than Mahone had envisaged; Wilcox’s tentative approach leads his brigadiers to charge him with cowardice and request that he be replaced.
While the book is detailed on the combat, I would have liked to know more about this command controversy.
Turning to the cavalry side, the Confederate forces similarly far outperform their Union counterparts. The first example is Rufus Barringer’s brigade holding off Barlow’s division on the first day of the Jerusalem Plank Road, prior to Mahone’s devastating attack the next day. When the Wilson-Kautz Raid gets underway, Rooney Lee’s cavalry, including Barringer, track them, assailing their rear. The hapless raiders get stopped before a key railroad bridge by a scratch force of convalescents and reservists under a captain. They carry out several days of destruction of both public and private property and continue without rest and on short rations. Wilson tries to lead them back to Union lines but is ambushed at First Reams Station by Mahone’s infantry and Fitz Lee’s cavalry. Kautz is bloodied by Wade Hampton’s column at Sappony Church. After suffering major losses, most of whom were taken prisoner, a remnant of the raiders limp into Union lines, not having received the support from Meade’s infantry or Sheridan’s cavalry that Wilson had been promised before the raid.
Against the backdrop of all this activity in the field, Lincoln decides to make a surprise visit to see Grant. Ben Butler’s ineffectual efforts to encourage cheering from troops whose enlistment was expiring provides some comic relief. Horn provides a greater focus on the Union than on the Confederate high command. This may be due to a lack of commensurate source material, but I felt that more focus on the Confederate army and corps leadership was needed to balance the narrative.
Horn’s deep research provides vivid anecdotes and detail, giving the reader a real sense of what was happening and why at a human level. In addition to the flow of events, the book also includes solid analysis of numbers involved and the important details of losses. The text is complemented by forty maps and an order of battle appendix as well as a summary assessment of what was achieved or not and who performed well or didn’t. The Petersburg Campaign deserves more studies like this, and fortunately for us, there are a number of similar topics for Mr. Horn to address over the course of the campaign.
Robert Fugate
Thanks Bob!
