Art Bergeron
March 25
Fri Jul 27 11:54:46 2001


All four of the brigades of Wilcox's and Heth's divisions returned to the Boydton Plank Road line following the failed attack on Fort Stedman. The Union attacks on the picket line helped spur their return, and all of them were involved to some extent in trying to recapture the picket line that afternoon or in the two days following.

To my knowledge, there were no troops to Wise's right on March 25, 1865. No brigades were available for that duty. The lineup of divisions at that time had Wilcox on the left and Heth on the right (from Petersburg to Hatcher's Run). Mahone had been moved to the Howlett Line in November 1864.

The Third Corps artillery had responsibility for supporting the infantry along this line. Those batteries that made up the Fourth Corps artillery supported the entrenchments east and southeast of Petersburg, roughly from the Appomattox River to near Rives' Salient. I am not aware of any of those batteries operating anywhere else. According to David G. McIntosh, the Third Corps artillery held the lines from Rives' Salient all the way to Hatcher's Run. Poague's Battalion, as you noted, had been moved north of the Appomattox. This left McIntosh's (or Owen's), Richardson's, Pegram's, Eshleman's, and Cutts' (Lane's). It is difficult to place all of the batteries on March 25, but in general, this is what I can tell you. Richardson's, minus the Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, were in and around Rives' Salient. This battery was on the Boisseau farm (what is now Pamplin Historical Park). Eshleman's Washington Artillery was in Batteries 29 (Fort Mahone), 30 (Fort Defiance), 35 (Fort Walker), and 38 (Fort Orleans). Cutts' Georgians appear to have been near Fort Mahone, in Battery 27, and in Battery 39.

McIntosh's/Owen's batteries were scattered. Hurt's Alabama Battery and the Danville (VA) Artillery were in or near Battery 45. The 4th Maryland Battery, which had given up its cannon, were acting as infantrymen in Fort Gregg. The Second Rockbridge Artillery was somewhere along the Dimmock Line at a place they called Fort Virginia. Davidson's VA Battery was near the Thomas Banks house southwest of Fort Gregg. My best guess is that the batteries of Pegram's Battalion were scattered from Boisseau's down to Hatcher's Run. A member of the Norfolk Light Artillery mentioned that the Crenshaw (VA) Battery was to the right of his unit.

Unfortunately, the Virginia Regimental History Series volumes are not very helpful for this period of the Petersburg Campaign. The authors were obviously hampered by the lack of sources.





Click on the logo to visit
Pamplin Historical Park and the
National Museum of the Civil War Soldier
Website