page_title: Siege of Petersburg
section_title: Battle of Fort Stedman
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Petersburg / Battle of Fort Stedman
caption_attribution_description: English: Petersburg, Va. Sections of chevaux-de-frise before Confederate main works CALL NUMBER: LC-B811- 3206[P&amp;P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-DIG-cwpb-02597 (digital file from original neg. of left half) LC-DIG-cwpb-02598 (digital file from original neg. of right half) LC-B8171-3206 (b&amp;w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. SUMMARY: Photograph from the main eastern theater of war, the siege of Petersburg, June 1864-April 1865. MEDIUM: 1 negative (2 plates)&#160;: glass, stereograph, wet collodion. CREATED/PUBLISHED: [1865] NOTES: Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 / compiled by Hirst D. Milhollen and Donald H. Mugridge, Washington, D.C.&#160;: Library of Congress, 1977. No. 0428 Two plates form left (LC-B811-3206A) and right (LC-B811-3206B) halves of a stereograph pair. Forms part of Selected Civil War photographs, 1861-1865 (Library of Congress)
context_page_description: The Richmond–Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865. Fought during the American Civil War, it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg. But it was not a classic military siege, in which a city is usually surrounded and all supply lines are cut off. Nor was it strictly limited to actions against Petersburg. The campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully. Then the Union Army constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 50 miles. They ran from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was critical to the supply of Confederate Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Numerous raids were conducted and battles fought in attempts to cut off the railroad supply lines through Petersburg to Richmond. Many of these caused the lengthening of the trench lines, overloading dwindling Confederate resources.
context_section_description: By March 25, 1865, the Siege of Petersburg had on for nine months. After initial battles the siege had settled into trench warfare. There were now a total of about 50 miles of trenches around Petersburg and Richmond. Lee was losing the war of attrition. Lee realized the Union Army around him was growing in size while his was getting smaller. He knew that as soon as Spring brought better weather, there would be a final attack by the Union Army. Lee ordered one of his most trusted generals, John Brown Gordon, to find a weak point in the Union line and attack it. Gordon thought Fort Stedman offered his best chance for success. While it had 9 feet (2.7 m) high walls and a moat, it formed a narrow gap in the Union line. Also, it was only 150 yards (140 m) from the Confederate line. Early in the morning, while it was still dark, Union pickets heard sounds coming from the corn field between the two lines. The sound was Confederate soldiers moving aside the Cheval de frise defenses in preparation for an attack. This was followed by 11,000 rebels who quickly captured 1,000 yards (910 m) of Union trenches. Union forces quickly arrived to turn back the Confederates to their own lines.
  Union casualties were about 1,000. Confederate killed, wounded or captured numbered around 3,000. These were losses that Lee's army could not afford. Lee wrote Confederate President Jefferson Davis that he could not hold out much longer.
caption: Petersburg, Va. Sections of chevaux-de-frise in front of the Confederate lines
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