Following yesterday’s victory in the Battle of Five Forks at Petersburg, Grant determines to make a frontal offensive on Lee‘s defenses. In the predawn hours of a Sunday morning, Gen. Horatio Wright’s Sixth corps emerge from their trenches and break through the Rebel lines, followed by offensives on the part of the Second and Ninth…
The coming of spring weather and the overwhelming numbers of Union soldiers in the trenches of Petersburg does not bode well for nearby Richmond. While the winter weather for months dampened Union offensives against the Confederate lines, there is now little to keep the Federals at bay. Confederate President Jefferson Davis, realizing the crisis at…
With Wilmington under Union control, Federal forces are advancing inland in North Carolina. Today in the Battle of Wyse Fork, Union forces attack Confederate General Braxton Bragg’s forces near Kinston. Control of roads and a railroad is at stake. For four days the battle rages. For much of the time the Confederates appear to have…