Pdf / English / 1986 Time-Life / 176 pages / 33.1 MB / ISBN10 0809447762

Following the Wilderness Campaign in Northern Virginia, a series of battles which left both sides with over 40% casualties, the Union Army under grant tried one more time to outflank Lee at Petersburg. Moving his men to the south, using boats and pontoon bridges, Grant was let down by Butler and other generals. Nevertheless, he ended the fight with Lee defending Petersburg, the gateway to Richmond and the hub of the railroad network that his army depended on to survive. Both sides settled in for a protracted siege which would look eerily like the trenches of WWI. Lee knew that with the initiative gone, the end was only a matter of weeks or months away. The book looks at the long-term effects of the seige on both sides as well as the Battle of the Crater, yet another opportunity for victory thrown away by Union commanders.

Another great book in this series, with period photographs, pictures of Civil War artifacts, maps and artwork. Sidebars include a look at the 1st Maine Artillery (a unit which was frightfully cut down during its baptism of fire), artistic renderings of Petersburg, the Union's giant depot at City Point, black troops in combat and Anatomy of a Trench System.