America’s Civil War: Last Ditch Rebel Stand at Petersburg

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Before Harris left Fort Gregg about noon, he shouted out Lee’s orders over the roar of the ongoing cannonade. Men, he told them, the salvation of the army is in your keep. Don’t surrender this fort. If you can hold out for two hours, Longstreet will be up. As he left the fort, after placing Lt. Col. James Duncan of the 16th Mississippi in charge, he heard someone shout out behind him: Tell them we’ll not give up! This was the second promise to Lee that the Mississippians would honor in every respect.

Two 6,000-man Federal divisions were put in place to overrun the Rebel earthworks as soon as the bombardment was lifted at 1 o’clock. One division was assigned to each of the works. The attack on Fort Gregg got underway promptly, but there was a delay at Fort Baldwin because of the heavy smoke from nearby burning buildings that the Confederates had set ablaze to improve their field of fire. The Federals advanced toward Fort Gregg in three columns, each containing a 2,000-man brigade, which were to converge on the fort as they approached.

Hit by massed volleys of fire, the attacking columns fell back, regrouped and came again, only to meet the same destructive fire and have to fall back once more. Longstreet was on the field by this time, swiftly positioning his lead brigades inside an inner defensive line as soon as they arrived. He and Lee observed the attack on Fort Gregg from a high vantage point. After each unsuccessful storming attempt, faint cheering could be heard from Fort Gregg and Fort Baldwin, which was not yet under heavy attack. At one point Lee called his staff around him, pointed to Fort Gregg and asked them to remember the most gallant defense they had witnessed here. Under a tree on a hillside in another part of the field, Grant was also observing and directing the assault on the fort.

Union Maj. Gen. John Gibbon, in charge of carrying out the attack, eventually called for one of the brigades in the division still standing idle before Fort Baldwin. This increased his assaulting force to about 8,000 men, and they were now sent against what was left of the 214 men inside Fort Gregg in one single flood designed to swamp the defenders, instead of in successive waves. The attackers completely surrounded the fort and gained entry through the unfinished side. While the Confederates tried to drive the Federals out through the opening, more troops attacked the other sides of the fort, standing on the shoulders of their comrades to reach the tops of the parapets.

Eventually, hand-to-hand fighting broke out on parapets all around the perimeter of the battered fort. At one time, six Federal regimental battle flags were visible on the parapets. Wounded Confederates inside the fort continued to load rifles taken from dead and disabled soldiers and pass them up to the sharpshooters atop the walls. Tumbling over the parapets, sometimes lifted on the raised bayonets of the unwavering defenders, the attacking Federals achieved a tenuous foothold inside the fort. Still, for another 25 minutes, hand-to-hand fighting continued within Fort Gregg, where defenders made use of everything available to them, from bayonets and clubbing rifles to bricks gathered from chimneys toppled by artillery fire.

Finally, only one gun was in action within the redoubt, and that was manned by a single cannoneer who held the lanyard taut on a gun loaded with double-shot canister. Told to drop the lanyard or we’ll shoot! the gunner yanked on the lanyard and shouted, Shoot and be damned! whereupon he was riddled with bullets and fell dead across the smoking gun. A similar incident had occurred on May 3, 1863, during the Second Battle of Fredericksburg, when the last gunner of the Washington Artillery fired point-blank into surrounding attackers. The unit’s well-earned reputation was not harmed by their work on April 2, 1865.

It was just after 3 o’clock when the last fighting terminated in Fort Gregg. The defenders had been true to their word–they had not given up. Moreover, they had given Lee the two hours he wanted, plus an extra hour for good measure. With the collapse of Fort Gregg, the defenders of Fort Baldwin now made a rush for the inner lines before their now-indefensible position could be surrounded, losing about 60 men as they fled. Left inside Fort Gregg were 55 dead defenders, 129 wounded and only 30 men who surrendered uninjured. The Federals suffered more than 700 casualties during the reduction of the two unfinished earthworks. Now, however, the victorious Federals faced a stronger inner line of works, manned by defenders whose resolve had been strengthened by witnessing the heroic defense of Fort Gregg.

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Tags: 19th Century, America's Civil War, American Civil War, Historical Conflicts

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