At A Crossing

The Battle of Jericho Mills a part of Grants Overland Campaign was fought May 23^rd 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 23^rd 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 83^rd 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.

Both Sides Of The River

The Battle of Shepherdstown or the Battle of Boteler’s Ford was the end of the Maryland Campaign and was fought September 19^th and 20^th 1862.

Confederate General Robert E Lee’s army of Northern Virginia waited after the Battle of Antietam for the Union to make another assault, when none came the two armies pulled together a truce so the wounded could be recovered.  Lee began his trip back to Virginia on the night of September 18^th 1862, leaving a rear guard under Brigadier General William N Pendleton to hold Boteler’s Ford.

In the early evening of September 19^th 1862 Union Brigadier General Charles Griffin sent the 1^st United States Sharpshooters and the 4^th Michigan Infantry to Boteler’s Ford.  The Union men attacked Pendleton’s troops, capturing four cannon before Griffin recalled them.  Pendleton reported the incident to Lee, reporting that he lost all forty-four of his artillery pieces.

On September 20^th 1862 the Union sent a reconnaissance force made up of Major Charles Lovell’s Brigade of United States Regulars.  The Regulars crossed the Potomac entered Shepherdstown, Virginia and encountered Confederate Major General A P Hill’s division about a mile from the river.  Hill’s men attacked under a heavy Union artillery fire.  Two more Union brigades were ordered across the river.  There was a clash along the heights along the river, which caused the Union to withdraw from the Virginia side of the river .  The day wore on, ending with both the Union and Confederate troops on either side of the Potomac River in a tactical stalemate.

Following this battle Union General George McClellan settle his Army of the Potomac into a defensive position along the Maryland bank of the river. Casualties for both sides combined were about 700, of this number 269 casualties were from the Union 118^th Pennsylvania Infantry; the “Corn Exchange Regiment”, for who this was their first battle.

Second Try To Cut The Rail Line

The Battle of Globe Tavern [also called Second Battle of Weldon Railroad] was begun on August 18th 1864. South of Petersburg Virginia this was the Union Armies second shot at severing the Weldon Railroad during of Siege of Petersburg. At dawn on August 18th 1864 Major General Gouverneur K Warren advanced from the Petersburg entrenchments, driving the confederates ahead of them, they reached the railroad at Globe Tavern. He sent in a division under Brigadier General Charles Griffin to destroy track, while another division under Brigadier General Romeyn B Ayres formed a battle line to block the Confederate advance. In the afternoon Confederate Major General Henry Heth attacked, pushing the Union division back toward the tavern. Both sides trenched in for the night.


After four days of fighting, the Union Army had extended its siege line, cutting off the primary rail line between Petersburg and Wilmington NC. This caused the Confederates to have to have to haul supplies 30 miles by wagon from the Stony Creek Station.

A Military Man

General Charles Griffin a Union general was born on December 18th 1825 in Granville, Ohio.

He went to Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio and graduated 23rd out of a class of 38 from West Point in 1847. He served with the 2nd US Artillery during the Mexican-American War.

General Griffin formed and than led the “West Point Battery”; Battery D of the 5th US Artillery at the First Manassa. He married Sallie Carroll of Maryland in December of 1861. He was leading men during the Peninsula Campaign when he was promoted to Brigadier General. Although he had a hard time getting along with his superiors, his leadership abilities continued to bring him promotions. He was given the honor by Ulysses S Grant to receive the arms and colors of the Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. After the Civil War was over he commanded the Reconstruction in Texas with headquarters in Galveston. He succumbed to Yellow Fever in Texas September 15th 1867, he is buried in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington DC.