The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 - Hardcover

John Fox

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31 ratings by Goodreads

9780971195004: The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0971195005 ISBN 13: 9780971195004

Publisher: Angle Valley Press, 2010

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Robert E. Lee faced the most monumental crisis of his military career on the morning of April 2, 1865. By sunrise that morning, the Union 6th Corps had punched a huge hole in Lee's outer line, southwest of Petersburg. He needed time for reinforcements to arrive from Richmond, but how could his depleted army buy that time? Amidst overwhelming odds, this suicide mission fell to a handful of Confederates who made a desperate last stand at Fort Gregg. Famous historian Douglas Southall Freeman called this epic fight "one of the most dramatic incidents of an overwhelming day," and yet it has been overshadowed by all the other historic events of April 1865. Fourteen Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery at Fort Gregg. Many battle-scarred veterans from both sides described this clash as the nastiest of their four-year war experience. The Confederate Alamo is the first battle study ever written about this strategic fight.

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From the Author:

I found out about the Battle of Fort Gregg when I researched and wrote my first book, Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Some of these Georgians had the misfortune of defending Ft. Gregg. I was astounded at what happened there and I was even more amazed that so few few people knew about the fort and the strategic significance of that "last stand." I grew up in Richmond and have been a student of the War my whole life and I had never heard of this battle until my 35th Georgia research. I discovered only a handful of magazine articles over the last 25 years had been written about the battle, so I decided to begin digging in the fall of 2005 to find out more. I uncovered reams of primary material much of it never before in print. These items filled 2 boxes and they weighed about 50 pounds. When I found this much stuff I realized I had quite a story to tell. I still find it remarkable that I am the first historian to write about this epic fight that was filled with so much drama. My prayer is that The Confederate Alamo does justice to the courage and sacrifice of the brave Union and Confederate soldiers who fought at Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865.

From the Inside Flap:

The Confederate Alamo is the first book-length study ever written about the chaotic and bloody Battle of Fort Gregg. By April 2, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant's men had tightened their noose around the vital town of Petersburg, Virginia. Trapped on three sides with a river at their back, the soldiers from General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia had never faced such dire circumstances.
To give Lee time to craft an escape, a small motley group of threadbare Southerners made a suicidal last stand at a place called Fort Gregg. Famous Civil War historian Douglas Southall Freeman described this fight as "one of the most dramatic incidents of an overwhelming day." The venerable Union commander, Major General John Gibbon, observed, "[t]he struggle was one of the most desperate ever witnessed."
At 1 p.m. on this day, the hearts pounded in the chests of thousands of Union soldiers in Gibbon's 24th Corps. These courageous men fixed bayonets and charged across 800 yards of open ground into withering small arms and artillery fire. A handful of Confederates rammed cartridges into their guns and fired over Fort Gregg's muddy parapets at this tidal wave of fresh Federal troops. Short on ammunition and men but not on bravery, these Southerners wondered if their last stand would make a difference.
Discover why many of the veterans who fought at this place considered it the nastiest fight of their war experience. Most of these men could not shake the gruesome memories of this day, yet when they passed on, this battle faded with them.

On these pages, award-winning historian John Fox resurrects these forgotten stories of heroism and valor. He uses numerous unpublished letters and diaries to take the reader from the Union battle lines all the way into Fort Gregg's smoking cauldron of hell. Fourteen Federal soldiers would later receive the Congressional Medal of Honor for their valor during this hand to hand melee, yet the few bloody Confederate survivors would receive an ignominious end to their war.

This richly detailed account is filled with maps, photos and new perspectives on the strategic effect this little known battle really had on the war in Virginia. The Battle of Fort Gregg and the bravery of the Americans who fought there are now stirringly depicted for future generations to study and to admire.

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