Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg (review)

370CIVIL WAR HISTORY mechanical problems and sometimes questionable editorial comment. Not all Kentuckians of the early 1800s, surely, "were a gay and carefree people," and the editor's assertion that Erwin (who, like many others, lamented that American civil strife would produce dire consequences) was a sage whose "prophecies" are fulfilled by modern events is unconvincing. Also, too much space is allotted to details about Erwin's home, Mount Holly. Nevertheless, the value of the Erwin materials overrides these minor difficulties. Those concerned with women's history, southern culture, and American politics during the antebellum and early Civil War years will find Like Some Green Laurel an interesting volume. John R. Brumgardt Museum of Western Colorado Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg. By Richard J. Sommers. (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday and Company, 1981. Pp. xxiii, 670. $22.50.) The siege at Petersburg lasted from June 1864 until early April 1865 and was marked by intermittent bursts of hard fighting as the Federals sought to extend or break the attenuated Confederate line and Lee responded with vigorous counterblows. These complex operations are subdivided by Richard J. Sommers into ten separate Union offensives: a preliminary fiasco on June 9 followed by nine campaigns directed by Grant himself. A misleading title to the contrary, Richmond Redeemed concentrates only on what the author terms "Grant's Fifth Offensive." It started on September 29, basically ended on October 2, and featured attacks on both sides of the James River. While MajorGeneral Benjamin F. Butler sought to penetrate Confederate defenses protecting the capital city of Richmond, Major General George G. Meade assailed Rebel positions southwest of Petersburg, a major transportation and logistical center. In each instance Lee fought back—but with only partial success. The generic names for the ensuing carnage are the battles of Fort Harrison and Chaffin's Bluff or Farm (north of the James) and Popular Spring Church and Peebles's Farm (south of the river). Other engagements in the campaign took place at New Market Heights, Fort Gilmer, and Roper's Farm near Richmond, and Jones's Farm, Pegram's Farm, Squirrel Level Road, Vaughan Road, and Harman Road, outside Petersburg. To illuminate these four bloody days, Sommers draws upon truly astonishing research and the temperament of a classical military historian. The result is a lucid narrative filled with encyclopedic detail and a panorama of strategy, tactics, and generalship. Much of the text is devoted literally to describing what happened to the major commanders and units, with slightly more attention on the Blue than the Gray. Unlike many campaign histories, this one has few anecdotes and even BOOK REVIEWS371 fewer long quotations. Relatively little space is given the role and feelings of the common soldier. Although interpretation is found throughout the story, sustained analysis is saved for the final chapter. Most of the author's conclusions add authoritative confirmation to ideas previously held about the war and some of its principal commanders. Lee continued to act with "audacity and aggressiveness" (p. 440), but "his achievable goals had been drastically reduced," in part by "the declining quality of manpower and subordinate leadership" (p. 441). Grant was "tactically rigid, strategically flexible, grand-strategically unrelenting" (p. 443). Butler deserves a high mark for imaginative plans but a low one for their inept execution, while Meade's generalship once more suggested "soundness, not brilliance" and "limited efforts for limited gains" (p. 437). "Prudent and competent," writes Sommers, "Meade would never have lost the war in Virginia, but, unaided, he would never have won it, either" (p. 437). Among the secondary commanders, Richards. Ewellmadehis "greatest contribution [ever] . . . to the Confederate cause" by restoring the broken defenses of Richmond (p. 439), and the flamboyant Wade Hampton also performed well, as did several Federal brigadiers. Overall, the book is a case study in the timeless lessons of war: the importance of leadership at all levels of command and of coordination of force on the attack; the vagaries of weather and terrain; the danger of confusion in victory; the "fog of battle" which obscures a larger setting; the liability of inexperienced troops and commanders; and so on. More specifically, Sommers believes the Fifth Offensive had mixed results. Grant failed...