Weakening The Petersburg Line

Union Major General Benjamin F Butler’s Army of the James crossed the James River during the early morning hours of September 29^th 1864, to assault the Richmond defenses. The Union troops had early success at the Battle of New Market Heights [aka Battle of Chaffin‘s Farm]. Black troops from the Eleventh Corps were heavily engaged here, with fourteen receiving the Medal of Honor for Valor. Then the Confederates pulled together and contained the breakthrough. General Robert E Lee reinforced his line north of the James River and counterattacked on September 30^th 1864. After two days of fighting and about 5000 casualties, the Union forces entrenched, and the Confederates moved into a new line of work. As General Ulysses S Grant planned Lee shifted his troops to meet this threat to Richmond, thus weakening his line at Petersburg.