Why the Weldon Railroad Raid Was Grant's Seventh Offensive of the Petersburg Siege

Where does December 1864's Weldon Railroad Raid/Applejack Raid/Hicksford Raid/Belfield Raid/Stony Creek Raid/Nottaway River Raid fit within the siege of Petersburg?

Some consider this raid the siege's seventh offensive, with the eighth involving the battle of Hatcher's Run in February 1865 and the ninth comprising the fighting in late March and early April 1865.

Others pronounce the raid a mere raid and liken it to Trevilian Raid, the Wilson-Kautz Raid, or the Beefsteak Raid.  For them, the seventh offensive took place in February, and the eighth and ninth in late March and early April.

For the following reasons, I say the Weldon Railroad Raid constitutes the seventh offensive of the Petersburg siege.

Grant conceived of the Weldon Railroad Raid as in part a gambit to lure enough Confederates away from Petersburg in pursuit of the raiders to allow him to advance to the South Side Rail Road in their absence.  OR 42, 3:865 (On December 8, he wrote to Meade:  If the enemy send off two divisions after Warren, what is there to prevent completing the investment of Petersburg with your reserve?).

,  He hoped that VI Corps infantry would get back to Petersburg faster than the infantry of Early's Corps so as to facilitate such a move.

OR 42, 1:448

Warren's reinforced corps (broken blue line) was to lure Confederates (broken red line) away from Petersburg.  Humphreys, with elements of his own corps and two others, was to slip behind the pursuing Confederates and finally reach the South Side Rail Road and the Appomattox River above Petersburg.  Its failure to provide the hoped for opportunity has obscured that it was a highly indirect approach to the South Side Rail Road.

VI Corps infantry did not reach Petersburg significantly faster than the infantry of Early's Corps and not enough Confederates appeared to pursue Warren.  Grant and Meade therefor did not take the risk of attempting to reach the South Side Railroad.

J. H. P., "Vermont Cavalry," Windsor (VT) Park, July 16, 1864

 As I get older, I pray more and more often to find things.  “Oh, Lord, please help me find my keys!”  “Oh, Lord, please help me find my glasses.”

Until yesterday I was praying to find something a little different.

While preparing the manuscript of my latest book for publication, one of my newspaper citations troubled me:  “J. H. P., ‘Vermont Cavalry,’ Windsor (VT) Park, July 16, 1864.”  I didn’t recognize the item to which I was citing.  Ordinarily, the citation would begin with the website from which I obtained it, such as beyondthecrater.com, citing…. or csa-railroads.com, citing… or the citation would end with the page and column number if the item came from newspapers.com or chroniclingamerica.com.

In the absence of a website of origin, I looked at newspapers.com and chroniclingamerica.com.  Neither had a newspaper named the Windsor (VT) Park.  Nor did such a newspaper appear on any other website, such as that of the Vermont Historical Society.

I searched the desktop of my current laptop (the one on which I’m writing this) and found nothing corresponding to the article. 

Finally, I searched the desktop of my previous laptop.  The summary of what I quoted from the article  appeared.  That led me to the folder (“1st Vermont Cavalry”) in which I had in May 2019 downloaded individual images of each page of the article before I created my summary of the article.  I searched my emails and downloads for that period and found nothing corresponding.  I think I know who sent me the images of the article, but I haven’t received confirmation.  Therefore I intend to publish the images here in my blog so that somebody looking for my citation can verify it.

The moral of the story is immediately to include any document’s origin whenever it is footnoted.  This article will be cited as posted in johnhorncivilwarauthor.blogspot.com, August 17, 2023.  It has long been in the public domain.