Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg

by Richard J. Sommers

Richard J. Sommers' Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg pioneered the study of the Civil War fighting around Petersburg. This award-winning volume conveyed an epic narrative of crucial military operations in early autumn 1864 which had gone unrecognized for more than 100 years.

Genres: Civil War, American Civil War, Civil War Eastern Theater, History, Siege Of Petersburg, American History

670 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Manray9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg is an astonishing work of scholarship. The author, Richard Sommers, earned a Ph. D. at Rice University under noted historian Frank Vandiver. He went on to 35 years as Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center at Carlisle Barracks and as a professor at the U.S. Army War College. I have been a reader of military histories for over 50 years and Dr. Sommers' book is, perhaps, the most thorough and in-depth history of a battle I've read. If you are interested in a window on a key phase of Grant's operations, including the Union attack on Chaffin's Bluff and the Battle of Peebles's Farm (also known as Poplar Springs Church), you could not do better than to start here. Expanding on his efforts, Dr. Sommers wrote in the book's preface:

...it is based upon research among thousands of sources in over 100 manuscript repositories and libraries from Maine to California and from Minnesota to Florida. Some 1,234 of these sources, representing material actually used, are entered in the bibliography. Within that list, 71 per cent of the entries are unpublished sources.

The 1981 Doubleday hardback edition contains 449 pages of text with another 221 pages of appendices, notes, bibliography and index – all devoted solely to Grant's Fifth Offensive against Petersburg from 29 September through 2 October, 1864. In addition, it provides an excellent example of the use of maps in a book of military history. There is a good hand-drawn map every 15-20 pages. These maps follow each movement of the operations presented in the text, in chronological order, with attention to the roads, rivers, hills, ravines, fortifications, units involved, and their movements at specific times during each day of the campaign. One shortcoming is the maps lack a scale. Unfortunately, I can find no credit given in the foreword, acknowledgments section, bibliography or on the maps themselves for the cartographer or source.

Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg covers the operations north of the James River by Ben Butler's Army of the James and those south of the river by Meade's Army of the Potomac along the Boydton Plank Road. Sommers argues that Grant's ultimate success grew, despite repeated tactical setbacks, from pinning the Army of Northern Virginia in place on the Petersburg front. Grant knew Lee could not withstand a prolonged toe-to-toe slugfest. He understood his strengths and learned from his setbacks. After the disasters of July 1864, Grant forbade frontal assaults. He, instead, pursued maneuver, coordinated multi-front advances, and the steady wearing away of Lee's forces through concerted pressure. In summing up the Fifth Offensive, Sommers wrote:

Grant launched the operation to achieve three objectives: to prevent reinforcements from leaving the Tidewater for the Valley, to capture Richmond, and to cut at least the Boydton Plank Road, with the Southside Railroad a promising second target and Petersburg itself a possible prize. Not one of these did he gain...Grant for all his setbacks, succeeded in holding his initial conquests. They became staging areas for future attacks...his gains in early autumn formed another tightening of the grip in the stranglehold he was fixing on the Army of Northern Virginia. In that sense, he lost most of the battles and still won his Fifth Offensive at Petersburg.

Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg earned Four Stars from me. I penalized Dr. Sommers for a lack of narrative zest. His intense focus and depth too frequently bogged down and undermined the book's impetus. At times, the text dragged along with details of staff work, administrative minutiae, and military jealousies within the Union hierarchy. Dr. Sommers is a better scholar than writer. Stylish prose is not his strong suit. One oddity noted: Sommers revealed an inordinate fondness for the French martial noun voltigeur. He used it dozens of times throughout the text in lieu of the common American term skirmishers.


Here is a link to Dr. Sommers' C-SPAN presentation on the subject of the siege of Petersburg:

http://www.c-span.org/video/?322035-1...

[Sean Chick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This might be the hardest book to rate. The research is top notch and there is no other book on the topic as a whole, although parts of the offensive are covered by Price, Crenshaw, and Bearss. There are plenty of images and maps, although the later are not always as useful as they could be. The analysis of commanders is good and detailed. Every major player is introduced with notes on their background. Yet, it is a slog. The book is long, at times confusing, and the narrative does not flow. It is a tedious book. It also felt unbalanced; the battle Peebles's Farm takes up around 200 pages at least.

This was one of the hardest books of its kind I have ever read. If not for its considerable strengths I would rate it much lower. One thing is certain. Only read this book if you are interested in the topic and I mean very interested.

[Michael Kleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Richmond Redeemed: The Siege at Petersburg, Richard J. Sommers meticulously recounts Union General Ulysses S. Grant’s Fifth Offensive (September 29 – October 2, 1864), primarily the Battles of Chaffin’s Bluff (Fort Harrison) and Poplar Spring Church (Peebles’ Farm), against the Confederate defenses around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Originally published in 1981, the sesquicentennial edition contains new research, new writing, and new thinking with perspectives and insights gathered from the author’s 33 years of teaching at the Army War College and conversations with fellow Civil War scholars and enthusiasts.

The Union attack north of the James River at Chaffin’s Bluff in the fall of 1864 broke through Richmond’s defenses and gave Federals their greatest opportunity to capture the Confederate capital. Meanwhile, fighting outside Petersburg at Poplar Spring Church so threatened Southern supply lines that Confederate General Robert E. Lee considered abandoning his Petersburg rail center six months before actually doing so. Yet hard fighting and skillful generalship saved both cities. Sommers painstakingly reconstructs these events with unrivaled detail.

I wouldn’t recommend trying to read Richmond Redeemed without a general understanding of the Siege of Petersburg or the military situation around Richmond in late 1864. Sommers quickly summarizes these events in the Eastern Theater before diving right into the minutia of Grant’s Fifth Offensive. A reader unfamiliar with Grant’s previous offensives around Petersburg is left scratching his or her head. It is difficult to fully grasp the details of these events without making the larger context perfectly clear. Complicating matters, Sommers switches back and forth between the attack against Richmond and the attacks southwest of Petersburg.

Sommers‘ thesis is that these separate attacks should be considered part of the same offensive, and part of a pattern in which Grant struck simultaneously at Lee’s southwestern supply lines and the defenses around Richmond. In theory, this would force Lee to commit valuable reserves to the defense of one or the other. He could afford to save one, but not both. If Sommers would have divided the attacks into two separate parts, it would have gone a long way toward reducing confusion without taking away from his overall thesis.

That aside, Richmond Redeemed is an unrivaled account of this often overlooked chapter of the Civil War. When people describe something as a “definitive account,” this is what they have in mind. One appendix lists senior officers who participated in the Fifth Offensive by state, grade (rank), and command. Another breaks down casualties by regiment. Sommers gives blow-by-blow accounts of maneuvers and engagements from perspectives ranging from the lowliest private to commanding generals, and his background gives him a unique grasp of tactics. It is truly comprehensive.

Richard J. Sommers, born in Hammond, Indiana, has a B.A. in History from Carleton College and a PhD from Rice University in Houston, Texas. He was the Senior Historian of the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center and a professor at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. He wrote his PhD dissertation on General Grant’s Fifth Offensive against Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia during the American Civil War, which he later expanded into his first and only book.

[William Olenick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rare telling of Grant's Fifth Offensive at Petersburg. It covers both actions north and south of the James River. North of the river is the twins attacks at New Market Heights and Fort Harrison, while south of the river is the actions around the Pegram farm.
Maps included give excellent detail and cover the actions discussed. Appendices included cover the order of battle, casualties, and various indexed lists of officers. An extensive list is also available in the bibliography.

[Avis Black · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sommers is known for his research, but his writing style is painful to endure, hence the low rating.

[David Vanness · Rating 4 out of 5]

77 pages of footnotes, Appendix A and B plus their footnotes add 70 more. and the 37 pages of Biblography have increased my 'To Read' list. Not a quick read but one I'm glad I've encountered.

[Matthew Ericson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched, a wealth of information. a bit of a chore though, but I am glad I read it.