At 7 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15, 2022, at Lincoln-Davis Civil War Round Table at Country House Restaurant in Alsip, Illinois, I'll present a talk on June 21, 1864, the critical opening day of the battle of Jerusalem Plank Road. On June 21, 1864, Grant's army group began its attempt to invest Lee's army group in Petersburg from the Appomattox River below the city to the Appomattox above. A single brigade of Confederate cavalry successfully stopped one of the hardest-fighting divisions in the Union army from reaching the Weldon Railroad, which cost the Federals the element of surprise and led to a series of debacles over the following eight days that cost the Northerners about 5,000 killed, wounded and captured--mostly captured. .
Federal Advance, June 21, 1864
Because five of the six principal officers (four Federal, two Confederate) were connected with Harvard University, I've facetiously called this day "The Harvard Reunion" and I'll explain why at the meeting on November 15. The winner of the fight graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was nicknamed "Aunt Nancy."
The presentation will be from chapter two of the nine chapters of my next book, Lee Besieged: Grant's Second Offensive at Petersburg, Jerusalem Plank Road and the Wilson-Kautz Raid, June 20-July 1, 1864.
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