GORDON’S ATTACK AT FORT STEDMAN.
579
Was prepared to make an effectual pursuit. Onthe 24th of March General Sheridan moved fromWhite House [see p. 494], crossed the James Riverat Jones’s Landing, and formed a junction withthe Army of the Potomac in front of Petersburgon the 27th. During this move General Ordfosent forces to cover the crossings of the Chicka-hominy. On the 24th of March . . . instruc-
tions for a general movement [on March 29th]of the armies operating against Richmond wereissued. . . .
Early on the morning of the 25th the enemy as-saulted our lines in front of the Ninth Corps (whichheld from the Appomattox River toward our left)
On the 8th of January, 1865, General E. O. C. Ord suc-ceeded General B. F. Butler In command of the Army ofthe James, and the Department of Virginia and NorthCarolina, the designation of which was changed, Feb-ruary 8tli, to the Department of Virginia.— Editobs.
K General A. A. Humphreys , in liis history, “TheVirginia Campaign of ’64 and ’65,” gives the followingaccount of the object of the Confederate movement:
“General Lee proposed . . . to make a sortie in order togain some of the works on the right of the line held by theArmy of the Potomac, near the Appomattox River, and theridge in their rear. . . . General Gordon was selected for
and carried Fort Stedman and a part of the lineto the right and left of it, established themselvesand turned the guns of the fort against us; -fo butour troops on either flank held their ground untilthe reserves were brought up, when the enemywas driven back with a heavy loss in killed andwounded, and 1900 prisoners. . . . General
Meade at once ordered the other corps to advanceand feel the enemy in their respective fronts.Pushing forward, they captured and held theenemy’s strongly intrenched picket-line in front ofthe Second and Sixth corps, and 834 prisoners.The enemy made desperate attempts to retake thisline, but without success. . . .
the service, and his corps was brought to the intrenclimentsnearest Petersburg, with its left on the Appomattox. Thepoint of attack was Fort Stedman, where the opposinglines were only 150 yards apart, the pickets 50 yards apart.General Gordon was sanguine that this redoubt could betaken by a night assault, and that through the breachthus made a sufficient force could be thrown to disorganizeand destroy Grant’s left wing before he could recover andconcentrate his forces from the right. General Gordon saysthat General Lee placed at his disposal, in addition to hisown corps, a portion of A. P. Hill ’s and a portion of Long-street’s, and a detachment of cavalry, in all about one-halfof the army.” Editors.
GORDON’S ATTACK AT FORT STEDMAN.
BY GEORGE L. KILMER, COMPANY I, 14TH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
O N the 25th of March, 1865, General O. B. Will-cox’s division, of the Ninth Corps, was formedbn the Petersburg lines in the following order fromright to left [see map, p. 538] : Second Brigade(Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Ely), from the Appo-niattox to Battery IX, near the City Point Railroad;Third Brigade ) (Colonel N. B. McLaughlen), fromBattery IX to Fort Haskell; First Brigade (ColonelSamuel Harriman), from Fort Haskell to FortMor-i'bn, directly facing Cemetery Hill. Fort Mortonw as a bastioned work, high and impregnable.Tort Haskell, the next down the line, on lowerground and quite under the best guns that Lee had
t Tile Third Brigade was formed on the lines as fol-lows; Eight companies of the 14th New York HeavyArtillery garrisoned Fort Stedman and Battery X, andguarded the trenches from the fort to a point one hun-dred yards to the right of the battery, and the 57th Mas-sa chusetts occupied the trenches on the right of the 14th;a detachment of Company K, 1st Connecticut Heavy Ar-ulery, served a Coehorn mortar-battery near Battery X,a ud one section of the 14th Massachusetts Battery, LightArtillery , was stationed in the battery. Two sections ofue 19th New York Battery occupied Fort Stedman. The
on the crest, was a small field redoubt mountingsix rifled guns and holding a feeble infantry gar-
enemy’s LINE
BATTERY X
FT. HASKELL
FT. STEDMAN
XII XI
29tli and 59th Massachusetts garrisoned the trenches andoccupied Batteries XI and XII, where, also, Company L,1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery served, with batteriesof 8-inch and Coehorn mortars. The 100 th Pennsylvania occupied the trenches from Battery XII to Fort Haskell,and the 3d Maryland those for a short distance on theleft of that work. The garrison of Fort Haskell con-sisted of four companies (I, K, L, and M) of the 14th NewYork Heavy Artillery, Captain Christian Woerner’s 3dNew Jersey Battery, an d a detachment of the 1st Connect-icut Heavy Artillery with Coehorn mortars.— G. L. K.