The Battle
of Jericho Mills a part of Grants Overland Campaign was fought May 23rd
1864 between the Union V Corps and a part of AP Hill’s Corps.
After the
fighting at Spotsylvania Court House came to end Union General Ulysses S Grant
moved to flank Confederate General Robert E Lee’s Army of Northern
Virginia. He was brought up short by
Lee’s “Hog Snout Line” along the North Anna River. At that point Grant divided the Army of the
Potomac into three parts.
Union
General Gouverneur K Warren reached Mount Carmel Church on the morning of May 23rd
1864. He stopped his V Corps which
caused Union General Winfield S Hancock’s II Corps to come up behind and get
tangled on the road. The two commanders
decided that the II Corps would move down Telegraph Road while the V Corps
would cross the North Anna at Jericho Mills.
As they
moved down the Telegraph Road, Union Major David B Birney’s division of the II
Corps began to take fire. He deployed
two brigades and attacked. They also
called up artillery which opened fire on Confederate Colonel Edward P
Alexander’s artillery. It was during
this duel that Lee was just missed by a cannonball which lodged in the door
frame near him, and Alexander was hit by bricks from the chimney which was hit
by Union shells. At 6pm the Union troops
charged, overwhelming the Confederate at the bridge. With Alexander’s artillery still lying down a
heavy fire, the Union troops did not cross the bridge, but entrenched on the
north side of the river.
Meanwhile at
Jericho Mills, the V Corps found the North Anna ford unprotected. Warren sent Union Brigadier General Charles
Griffin’s Division across the river while the rest the Corps crossed by 4:30 pm
on a pontoon bridge. Finding out from a
captured Confederate that there was a force nearby on the Virginia Central
Railroad, Warren deployed for battle.
Lee felt that Warren’s movement was a feint and so had AP Hill send a
single division under Major General Cadmus M Wilcox, with artillery commanded by
Colonel William J Pegram. The
Confederates struck Warren’s Corps hard, breaking their line and causing them
to flee to the rear where they came up against the bluffs along the river. Warren’s Corps was saved in part by Union
Colonel Charles S Wainwright’s artillery which laid down a deadly fire on the
Confederates. It was also at about this
time that Union Brigadier General Joseph J Bartlett led his 83rd
Pennsylvania Infantry against the right flank of the Confederate line causing
them to retreat and leaving that part of the line untenable. Seeing that reinforcements from Confederate
Major General Henry Heth would not reach the field in time, Wilcox had his men
withdraw.
Wilcox was
greatly outnumbered with about 6,000 men to the Union’s 15,000. There were about 730 Confederate casualties,
while the Union reported 377.
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