Battle of Fort Stedman The Battle of Fort Stedman , also known as the Battle of Hare ' s Hill , was fought on March 25 , 1865 , during the final days of the American Civil War . The Union Army fortification in the siege lines around Petersburg , Virginia , was attacked in a pre - dawn Confederate assault by troops led by Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon . The attack was the last serious attempt by Confederate troops to break the Siege of Petersburg . After an initial success , Gordon ' s men were driven back by Union troops of the IX Corps commanded by Maj . Gen . John G . Parke . Background . During March 1865 , Confederate General Robert E . Lee continued to defend his positions around Petersburg , but his Army was weakened by desertion , disease , and shortage of supplies and he was outnumbered by his Union counterpart , Lt . Gen . Ulysses S . Grant , by about 125 , 000 to 50 , 000 . and he asked Maj . Gen . John B . Gordon for advice . Gordon replied that he had three recommendations , in decreasing order of preference : first , offer peace terms to the enemy ; second , retreat from Richmond and Petersburg , link up with the Confederate army in North Carolina under General Joseph E . Johnston , jointly defeat Sherman , and then go after Grant ; third , fight without delay . An argument ensued , with Lee rejecting the political implications of the first choice and indicating the difficulty of the second , but Gordon left the meeting with the impression that Lee was considering those options . On March 6 , however , Gordon was summoned back to headquarters and Lee told him that " there seemed to be but one thing that we could do — fight . To stand still was death . It could only be death if we fought and failed . " Gordon later wrote in his memoirs that he " labored day and night at this exceedingly grave and discouraging problem , on the proper solution of which depended the commander ' s decision as to when and where he would deliver his last blow for the life of the Confederacy . " He worked on his plans until March 23 and decided to recommend a surprise attack on the Union lines that would force Grant to contract his lines and disrupt his plans to assault the Confederate works ( which , unbeknownst to Lee and Gordon , Grant had already ordered for March 29 ) . Gordon planned a pre - dawn assault from the Confederate stronghold known as Colquitt ' s Salient against Fort Stedman , one of the fortifications in Union lines that encircled Petersburg , named for Griffin A . Stedman , a Union colonel from Connecticut who had been killed in the vicinity in August 1864 . It was one of the closest spots to the Confederate works , there were fewer wooden " chevaux de frise " obstructions protecting it , and a supply depot on the U . S . Military Railroad was less than a mile behind the fort . Directly after capturing Fort Stedman and its artillery , Confederate soldiers would move north and south along the Union lines to clear the neighboring fortification s and make way for the main attack , which would lead to the main Union supply base of City Point ( also Grant ' s headquarters ) , ten miles ( 16 km ) northeast where the Appomattox River joins the James River . The assault force was three divisions of Gordon ' s Second Corps ( under Brig . Gen . Clement A . Evans , Maj . Gen . Bryan Grimes , and Brig . Gen . James A . Walker ) , two brigades from the Fourth Corps division of Maj . Gen . Bushrod R . Johnson ( under Brig . Gens . Matt W . Ransom and William H . Wallace ) in close support , and two brigades from Maj . Gen . Cadmus M . Wilcox ' s Third Corps division in reserve . Lee had also ordered the division of Maj . Gen . George Pickett of the First Corps to move from its position north of the James River in time to join the action . This represented almost half of Lee ' s infantry of the Army of Northern Virginia : 11 , 500 men from Gordon ' s corps and Bushrod Johnson ' s division , 1 , 700 of Wilcox ' s men nearby , and 6 , 500 from Pickett moving up . Maj . Gen . W . H . F . " Rooney " Lee ' s cavalry division was designated to exploit the expected infantry breakthrough . Opposing them were the Union IX Corps commanded by Maj . Gen . John G . Parke , defending the first south from the Appomattox River , and manning in Gordon ' s front ( from north to south ) artillery Batteries IX and X , Fort Stedman , and Batteries XI and XII . Parke ' s 3rd Division , under Brig . Gen . John F . Hartranft , was in reserve behind the lines . While Maj . Gen . George G . Meade was away at City Point with Grant , Parke was the acting commander of the Army of the Potomac , although he would not realize that until after Gordon ' s attack started . Battle . Confederate attack . Gordon ' s attack started at 4 : 15 a . m . Lead parties of sharpshooters and engineers masquerading as deserting soldiers headed out to overwhelm Union pickets and to remove obstructions that would delay the infantry advance . They were followed by three groups of 100 men assigned to storm the Union works and stream back into the Union rear area . These men relied on surprise and speed — they carried unloaded muskets so that no one could accidentally fire and alert the enemy . The main thrust was between Batteries XI and X , with one group moving north for Battery XI and the other two for X and Stedman . The movement achieved complete surprise . Brevet Brig . Gen . Napoleon B . McLaughlen , the officer responsible for the Fort Stedman sector , heard the sounds of the attack , dressed quickly in the predawn darkness , and rode to Fort Haskell , just to the south of Battery XII , which he found to be ready to defend itself . As he moved north , McLaughlen ordered Battery XII to open fire on Battery XI and ordered a reserve infantry regiment , the 59th Massachusetts , to counterattack , which they did with fixed bayonets , briefly re - capturing Battery XI . Assuming that he had sealed the only breach in the line , McLaughlen rode into Fort Stedman . He recalled , " I crossed the parapet and meeting some men coming over the curtains , whom in the darkness I supposed to be part of the picket , I established them inside the work , giving directions with regard to position and firing , all of which were instantly obeyed . " He suddenly realized that the men he was ordering were Confederates and they realized he was a Union general , capturing him . He was taken back across no man ' s land and surrendered his sword personally to Gordon . Gordon soon arrived at Fort Stedman and found his attack had so far exceeded his " most sanguine expectations . " Within minutes , Batteries X , XI ( Retaken from the 59th Massachusetts ) , and XII and Fort Stedman had been seized , opening a gap nearly long in the Union line . Confederate artillerists under Lt . Col . Robert M . Stribling used the captured guns in Stedman and Battery X to open up enfilading fire on the entrenchments to the north and south . The attack began having difficulty at Battery IX to the north , where the Union troops formed a battle line and the Confederates were too confused by the maze of trenches to attack it effectively . Gordon turned his attention to the southern flank of his attack and Fort Haskell , against which he launched his division under Clement Evans . The defenders successfully employed canister rounds from three cannons , halting the assault . The Confederate artillery from Colquitt ' s Salient began bombarding Fort Haskell and the Federal field artillery returned fire , along with the massive siege guns in the rear . When the Union flag was knocked down , the Union gunners assumed that it had fallen to the Confederates and opened fire on their own men . Volunteers were found to raise the flag again and four of them were killed before the Federal artillery ceased fire . Gordon sent a message back to Lee that the attack was going well , but he was unaware of the trouble developing . His three 100 - man detachments were wandering around the rear area in confusion and many had stopped to satisfy their hunger with captured Federal rations . The cavalry had not found an avenue through which to advance into the rear . Pickett ' s Division had such difficulty with rail transportation that only three of its four brigades departed on schedule , and they did not arrive until midday , too late to take part in the battle . And the main Union defense force was beginning to mobilize . Parke acted decisively , ordering Hartranft ' s reserve division to close the gap while his reserve artillery under Col . John C . Tidball took up positions on a ridge east of Fort Stedman and began shelling the Confederates . Union counterattack . Hartranft , in the words of historian Noah Andre Trudeau , " was a man possessed . From the instant he received word that Fort Stedman had fallen , Hartranft worked furiously to limit the Confederate penetration and , once that objective has been achieved , to eliminate the pocket . " Finding that Maj . Gen . Orlando B . Willcox , Parke ' s 1st Division commander and a more senior officer , was preparing his headquarters to withdraw , Hartranft was able to convince Willcox to yield tactical command and he organized defensive forces that completely ringed the Confederate penetration by 7 : 30 a . m . , stopping it just short of the military railroad depot , Meade Station . The Union artillery , aware that Confederates occupied the batteries and Fort Stedman , launched punishing fire against them . Gordon , who was in Fort Stedman , realized his plan had failed when his lead men started returning and reported remarkable Union resistance . With permission from Lee , who had arrived to watch the battle , Gordon scrambled to get his forces back to safety . By 7 : 45 a . m . , 4 , 000 Union troops under Hartranft were positioned in a semicircle of a mile and a half , ready to counterattack . A messenger arrived with word from Parke to delay the attack while reinforcements came up from the VI Corps , but Hartranft ordered his line to charge , writing afterward that " I saw that the enemy had already commenced to waver , and that success was certain . I , therefore , allowed the line to charge ; besides this , it was doubtful whether I could have communicated with the regiments on the flanks in time to countermand the movement . " The retreating Confederates came under Union crossfire , suffering heavy casualties . Their attack had failed . Fort Stedman was recaptured by a squad from the 208th Pennsylvania . Aftermath . A distinguished visitor came close to witnessing the action on March 25 . President Abraham Lincoln was conferring with General Grant and a division - size review parade was scheduled nearby for that morning . Because of the Confederate attack , the review was postponed until that afternoon . A Confederate prisoner was amazed to see the general and president so soon after what he considered a massive attack , riding " by us seemingly not the least concerned and as if nothing had happened . " He and his fellow prisoners took note of this self - confidence and " with one accord agreed that our cause was lost . " Lincoln had telegraphed to Secretary of War Edwin M . Stanton that morning , " Arrived here all safe about 9 P . M . yesterday . No war news . . . Robert [ Lincoln ' s son , serving as an aide to Grant ] just now tells me there was a little rumpus up the line this morning , ending about where it began . " The attack on Fort Stedman turned out to be a four - hour action with no impact on the Union lines . The Confederate Army was forced to set back its own lines , as the Union attacked further down the front line . To give Gordon ' s attack enough strength to be successful , Lee had weakened his own right flank . The II Corps and VI Corps seized much of the entrenched Confederate picket line southwest of Petersburg , but found the main line still well manned . This Union advance prepared the ground for Grant ' s breakthrough attack in the Third Battle of Petersburg on April 2 , 1865 . Union casualties in the Battle of Fort Stedman were 1 , 044 ( 72 killed , 450 wounded , 522 missing or captured ) , Confederate casualties a considerably heavier 4 , 000 ( 600 killed , 2 , 400 wounded , 1 , 000 missing or captured ) . But more seriously , the Confederate positions were weakened , and irreplaceable men lost . After the battle , Lee ' s defeat was only a matter of time . His final opportunity to break the Union lines and regain the momentum was gone . The Battle of Fort Stedman was the final offense action of the Army of Northern Virginia . One week later . the Union Army broke the Confederate lines ending the Richmond – Petersburg Campaign . Immediately following was the Appomattox Campaign and the final surrender of Lee ' s army on April 9 , 1865 .