page_title: Third Battle of Petersburg
section_title: Parke attacks southeast of Petersburg
hierarchical_section_title: Third Battle of Petersburg / Battle / Parke attacks southeast of Petersburg
caption_attribution_description: English: The 9th Corps storming Fort Mahone, outside of Petersburg, Virginia
context_page_description: The Third Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg or the Fall of Petersburg, was fought on April 2, 1865, south and southwest of Petersburg, Virginia, at the end of the 292-day Richmond–Petersburg Campaign and in the beginning stage of the Appomattox Campaign near the conclusion of the American Civil War. The Union Army under the overall command of General-in-Chief Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, launched an assault on General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's Petersburg, Virginia trenches and fortifications after the Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. As a result of that battle the Confederate right flank and rear were exposed. The remaining supply lines were cut and the Confederate defenders were reduced by over 10,000 men killed, wounded, taken prisoner or in flight.
  The thinly held Confederate lines at Petersburg had been stretched to the breaking point by earlier Union movements that extended those lines beyond the ability of the Confederates to man them adequately and by desertions and casualties from recent battles.
context_section_description: The Union Army's IX Corps under Major General John G. Parke occupied the original trenches east of Petersburg that were captured in June 1864. Facing Parke was a strong Confederate position along the Jerusalem Plank Road dominated by Fort Mahone (strengthened from the former Battery 29 and named after Major General William Mahone; also known as "Fort Damnation"), covered by batteries in six redoubts and manned by the forces of Major General John B. Gordon. The fort was connected to the main Confederate line by a covered way. The Confederates had built a strong secondary line about 0.25 miles (0.40 km) behind their main line. Union Fort Sedgwick was about 500 yards (460 m) from Fort Mahone.
  Since much of the recent action had occurred west of Petersburg, in particular the Battle of Five Forks, the Confederate strength due south and east of Petersburg was considerably weakened. Gordon noted only 5,500 men were available to hold over 6 miles (9.7 km) of line. Major General Bryan Grimes's division of 2,200 men held 3.5 miles (5.6 km) of line between the Crater and Battery No. 45, including the defenses around Fort Mahone.
  Although lightly manned, the positions between Batteries 25 and 30, especially Fort Mahone (Battery 29), where Parke was to attack, had been considerably strengthened since their initial construction. Even if unsuccessful on the morning of April 2, a simultaneous assault here would occupy these Confederate troops and prevent them from being shifted westward.
  On the night of April 1, 1865 at 11:00 p.m., Parke sent men from Brigadier General Simon G. Griffin's brigade of Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Robert B. Potter's division forward from a point near Fort Sedgwick (also known as "Fort Hell") to take Grimes's picket line. They captured 249 officers and men, about half of Colonel Edwin L. Hobson's brigade in the process. Parke was still quite concerned about trying to assault these works and pointedly asked that the offensive be cancelled since the element of surprise had been lost. Early artillery fire starting at 10:00 p.m. on April 1 and the attack on the picket line and subsequent skirmishing had put the defenders on alert.
  When Parke did not receive a favorable reply to his request for cancellation of the assault, he prepared to send 18 regiments forward. Brigadier General Robert B. Potter's division was to the west of the Jerusalem Plank Road. Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) John F. Hartranft's division was to the east on the right of Fort Sedgwick. Brigadier General (Brevet Major General) Orlando B. Willcox sent three regiments from his division to cover Hartranft's right flank with the rest of his regiments in reserve but demonstrating between the Crater and the Appomattox River. Potter and Hartranft both put axmen in front of their forces to dismantle obstructions.
  Parke's attackers moved forward into a mist at about 4:00 a.m. Thomas P. Beals, with three companies of the 31st Maine Infantry Regiment, led the attack of Potter's division on Battery No. 28 after the pioneers chopped through the chevaux-de-frise. The ditch in front of the battery was filled with water so after some Union attackers fell in, others moved around the west side of the battery and captured its small garrison. Taking artillery fire from the secondary Confederate line, the Union troops then moved along the main line toward Fort Mahone. Hartranft's division had similar success taking Battery No. 27. Harriman's three regiments from Willcox's division took five guns and 68 prisoners at Battery No. 25.
  The Union attackers captured Miller's salient but then had to fight from traverse to traverse along the trenches. Cornelius Robinson Jr. led the 3rd Regiment Alabama Infantry to the right when Hartranft's and Harriman's men got to the line, positioning them so that the Union attackers could be enfiladed by artillery fire from the second Confederate line. Robinson's men shot the attackers as they emerged from the traverse to their east until the Confederates had to retreat after running out of ammunition.
  Colonel E
caption: 61st Massachusetts Infantry attacking Fort Mahone April 1865
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