The Battle of Fort Steadman occurred on March 25th, 1865, during the final days of the American Civil War.

The Union Army under General Ulysses S. Grant was attacked in a pre_dawn Confederate assault on Fort Steadman by the Confederate troops, led by General Robert E. Lee. This attack was the last serious attempt of Confederate troops to break the Siege of Petersburg.

Prelude

In March 1865 General Robert E. Lee had to face several Union victories in the Shenandoah Valley and in the Carolinas. These victories allowed the Union to strengthen their positions around Petersburg and to threaten Lee's lines of supply. In this risky situation Lee ordered General John Gordon to formulate a plan that would allow the Confederate Army to pull out of Petersburg and perhaps give it the opportunity to link up with the Confederate army in North Carolina under General Joseph E. Johnston.

Confederate plan of attack

Gordon's idea was a surprise attack on the Union lines to force Grant to shorten his lines or even set his lines back. In detail Gordon planned a pre_dawn assault on Fort Steadman, one of the fortifications marking the Union lines that encircled Petersburg. It was one of the closest spots on the line, there were fewer wooden obstructions, and a supply depot on the U.S. Military Railroad was less than a mile behind it. Directly after capturing the fort, Confederate Soldiers would move along the Union lines to clean the neighboring fortifications to make way for the confederate main attack. Nearly half of Lee's army would follow in a massive assault to hopefully overrun the Union left flank.

The attack startet at 4:00 a.m. On a signal, lead parties headed out to overwhelm Union pickets and to remove wooden defenses. It was a complete surprise as they captured Fort Stedman and the batteries just to the north and south of it with little resistance. The Confederates captured nearly a 1,000 prisoners, the lead attackers reached Harrison's Creek along the Prince George Court House Road. Behind them, General Lee formed his troops to launch the main attack as soon as Gordon would have confirmed a breach of the Union lines.

Union counterattack

But the Union was not willing to retreat. Union General John Hartranft, a divisional commander in the IX. Corps, gathered his troops for a counterattack. With artillery support from up and down the Union line, General Hartranft managed to stop the Confederate attack. Gordon, who was in Fort Steadman, realized the plan had failed when his lead men started returning and reported remarkable Union resistance. By 7:30 a.m. Union forces had sealed the breach and their artillery was heavily bombarding the fort. A coordinated attack started before 8.00 a.m. and Hartranft managed to retake the fort and resumed the initial Union line. The retreating Confederates came under Union crossfire, suffering heavy casualties. The attack had failed.

Aftermath

The attack on Fort Steadman turned out to be a four hour action with no impact on the Union lines. In fact the Confederate Army was forced to set back its own lines, as the Union attacked further down the frontline. To give Gordon's attack enough strength to be successful, Lee had weakened his own left flank. There, near Fort Fisher, the Union counterattack prepared the ground for one of General Grant's break through attacks on April 2, 1865.

Lee's army suffered heavy casualties during the battle of Fort Steadman. But more seriously, the Confederate positions were weakened. After the battle and the following counterattack, Lee's defeat was only a matter of time. His final opportunity to break the Union lines and regain the momentum was gone.

References

• [1] (http://www.nps.gov/pete/mahan/PNBhome.html) Website of the Petersburg National Battlefield
• McPherson, James M. Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States). Oxford University Press, 1988. ISBN 019516895X.