Second Battle of Petersburg

Second Battle of Petersburg
Part of the American Civil War
The war in Virginia – the 18th Army Corps storming a fort on the right of the Rebel line before Petersburg, June 15, sketch by Edwin Forbes
Date June 15, 1864 (1864-06-15) – June 18, 1864 (1864-06-18) Location Petersburg / Prince George County, Virginia Result Confederate victory; Union siege begins
Belligerents
United States (Union)	CSA (Confederacy)
Commanders and leaders
Ulysses S. Grant George G. Meade	Robert E. Lee P.G.T. Beauregard
Units involved
Army of the Potomac Army of the James	Army of Northern Virginia
Strength
13,700–62,000 (reinforcements arrived over four days)	5,400–38,000
Casualties and losses
11,386 total (1,688 killed, 8,513 wounded, 1,185 missing or captured)	4,000 total (200 killed, 2,900 wounded, 900 missing or captured)

The Second Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Assault on Petersburg, was fought June 15–18, 1864, at the beginning of the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign (popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg). Union forces under Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant attempted to capture Petersburg, Virginia, before Gen. Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia could reinforce the city.

The four days included repeated Union assaults against substantially smaller forces commanded by Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. Beauregard's strong defensive positions and poorly coordinated actions by the Union generals (notably Maj. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith, who squandered the best opportunity for success on June 15) made up for the disparity in the sizes of the armies. By June 18, the arrival of significant reinforcements from Lee's army made further assaults impractical. The failure of the Union to defeat the Confederates in these actions resulted in the start of the ten-month Siege of Petersburg.

The First Battle of Petersburg occurred on June 9, 1864, when Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler dispatched 4,500 troops from his Army of the James in the Bermuda Hundred area and assaulted the Dimmock Line, the outer line of earthworks protecting Petersburg. The Confederates, under the overall command of Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard, numbered only 2,500, many of whom were teenage boys and elderly men. Timid leadership on the part of Union Maj. Gen. Quincy A. Gillmore and Brig. Gen. August Kautz led to the failure of the assault, squandering a prime opportunity to seize lightly defended Petersburg. Butler's men returned to their positions in Bermuda Hundred.