As the massive forces of Union General William T. Sherman approach North Carolina, word of their advance has reached Confederate General Robert E. Lee‘s Army of Northern Virginia, the army that is desperately trying to prevent Union General Ulysses S. Grant from reaching Richmond. With many southerners on the home front now ready for the…
The three-day Battle of Hatcher’s Run, fought in and around the trenches of Petersburg, is over. Despite having briefly broken through the Union lines, the Confederates lose the battle, gaining no ground in their defeat. Today Confederate General Robert E. Lee offers a stark assessment of the battle. His men having fought in severe winter…
In the middle of the bitter winter cold, Confederate General Robert E. Lee, embedded in the trenches near Petersburg, writes to the Confederate Secretary of War in the nearby Southern capital of Richmond. The subject is army desertion. “I have endeavored to ascertain the causes [of the] alarming frequency of desertions,” the general writes. Lee…