The Petersburg Canon, Part VI: Grant's Fourth Offensive--the Weldon Railroad, August 1864

After the four books on the Crater come three books, each on one of the following three offensives.  I wrote the book for August, which follows next.

I can criticize my own book easier than anyone else's.  My goal was to make people feel the heat and humidity at Second Deep Bottom, the chaos of Globe Tavern, the desperation of Second Reams Station.

As I work on other projects and improve as an historian, I see more things I could have done.  If I had it to do over again, I'd start by describing the failed Confederate attempt at destroying the Deep Bottom bridgehead.  ;This would involve the navies.  Cornell has a handy website.

I've described my errors.  Pond's brigade charged five deep, not eleven deep, at Fussell's Mill on August 16, 1864.  The Wilson-Kautz Raid affected Confederate rail transportation until mid-July 1864, not September 1864.

I'd also draw more upon newspaper accounts and manuscript sources available online.  Hampton Newsome, an outstanding editor, encourage me to look at newspapers more than I already had in regard to the book I'm completing on the Petersburg Regiment, the 12th Virginia Infantry in Weisiger's Brigade of Mahone's Division.  Here's an example of what I would have found:

Privates George William May of the Petersburg City Guard and Alexander M. Miles of the Petersburg Old Grays, in Petersburg that day, learned that the regiment was going out to fight.  They grabbed their Enfields and hotfooted it out of town together to join the 12th.  Rushing into the belt of woods north of the Globe Tavern clearing swept by Colquitt’s and Clingman’s brigades, they joined the pandemonium prevailing there as small bands of soldiers of both sides rushed this way and that, capturing, escaping and recapturing one another.  In the thicket, May and Miles saw a party of Federals advancing towards them.  Thinking that retreat would lead to death while standing and fighting would result in captivity, the two Virginians ducked behind some trees and conferred.  They resolved on bluffing the bluecoats.

When the Unionists arrived within hearing, May stepped forward and demanded their surrender.  He told the Yanks that he had a regiment behind him while another was bearing down on their flank.  Some of the Unionists threw down their arms immediately, but the officer leading them hesitated.  Hidden in the underbrush, Miles made enough noise to suggest a lot of Confederates advancing.  The threat of overpowering numbers silenced the officer.  The whole party lay down their arms and marched in double file to where May stood.  May placed himself at the head of the column.  Miles came out of the timber and posted himself at the column’s rear.  The two Virginians led the Northerners within Confederate lines.  They had taken prisoner a captain, a lieutenant and twenty-five privates whose chagrin knew no bounds when they discovered the deception.[1]

I'd also ask Hampton for more of his excellent maps.

---

[1] The Daily Confederate (Raleigh, N.C.), August 26, 1864; The Chattanooga Rebel (Griffin, Ga.), September 3, 1864.  Both versions mistakenly name George Henry May instead of George William May, both of whom belonged to the Petersburg City Guard, but George Henry May had died on May 22, 1863 from his Second Manassas wound.  Henderson, 12th Virginia Infantry, 140.