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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. ==Background== 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.〔Davis, pp. 27–33; Kennedy, p. 352; Salmon, p. 401-03.〕 After the Battle of Cold Harbor in Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's 1864 Overland Campaign, the Union Army of the Potomac slipped away from Gen. Robert E. Lee and began crossing the James River. Although the Overland Campaign's objective had been to defeat Lee's Army of Northern Virginia in a decisive battle, Grant changed his objective to be the city of Petersburg, an important rail junction that controlled the supplies leading to the Confederate capital of Richmond. Grant knew that Lee could not protect Richmond if Petersburg fell and he would be forced to battle Grant in the open. He also knew from the unsuccessful first assaults on June 9 how weak the Petersburg defenses actually were. Speed was essential to Grant's plan, requiring success before Lee realized Grant's objective and could reinforce Petersburg. Lee was not in fact fully cognizant of Grant's moves until June 18, assuming until then that Grant would target Richmond. Beauregard, however, had been loudly warning of the danger to Petersburg since June 9.〔Salmon, p. 395; Davis, pp. 34–36; Eicher, p. 687.〕 Inexplicably, Grant selected Butler's Army of the James, which had performed poorly in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, to lead the expedition toward Petersburg. On June 14 he directed Butler to augment the XVIII Corps, commanded by Brig. Gen. William F. "Baldy" Smith, to a strength of 16,000 men, including Kautz's cavalry division, and use the same route employed in the unsuccessful attacks of June 9. The II Corps of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. Winfield S. Hancock, would follow Smith. Grant wrote in his post-war memoirs, "I believed then, and still believe, that Petersburg could have been easily captured at that time."〔Davis, pp. 37–39.〕 One advantage for the Confederates was the strength of the Dimmock Line, formidable artillery positions connected by earthworks and trenches for over , circling the city and anchored on the Appomattox River to the east and west. Since Beauregard had insufficient men available to defend the entire line, he concentrated 2,200 troops under Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise in the northeastern sector, between Redan number 1 on the Appomattox River and Redan number 23, protecting the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad to the southeast. Even with his concentration, infantrymen were spaced an unacceptable apart. His remaining 3,200 men were facing Butler's army at Bermuda Hundred.〔Trudeau, pp. 38–39; Davis, p. 39.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Second Battle of Petersburg」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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