The men were as tough as hickory switches, but morale was fragile. So when “Marse Robert” directed Gordon to plan a grand attack on the Union siege lines, the Georgian applied himself with the audacity and thoroughness that had made him the master of many a combat collision.Īs for Lee, he knew all too well the wretched state of the Army of Northern Virginia. Over the winter’s months of hunger and sickness for his army, Lee had come to rely on Gordon more than he did on any other officer. Such a decision lay with Lee and with no one else. Infernally brave but sharp-minded, as well, Gordon saw that the war was all but lost. The horsemen would ride hard for City Point, a vast Union supply base and the headquarters of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. That would, in turn, open a gap for Confederate cavalry to charge through. The ambitious plan Gordon had prepared – a forlorn hope – called for the rapid capture of Fort Stedman and its flanking batteries, after which chosen regiments would plunge deeper into the Union lines to seize two supporting forts. Behind the pioneers, carefully formed assault units rushed up, each with a clear mission. Unsuspecting Union pickets were quickly disarmed or killed. Lee hoped would become the key to unlocking the nine-month-old siege of Petersburg. A mere 200 yards to the front stood the earthen walls of Fort Stedman, which Gordon and a desperate Robert E. The repartee covered the rustling of special detachments slipping forward in the cold pre-dawn,men armed with axes to break up Yankee obstacles. Major General John Brown Gordon the forward parapet, whispering cues to a sentry bantering with his Union counterpart. Glory's End: The Final Days of the Civil War in Virginia | HistoryNet Close
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