TOCWOC – A Civil War Blog

I thought now would be a good time to resurrect off and on posts about what I’ve got going on over at TOCWOC’s sister site The Siege of Petersburg Online.  Here are some of the posts from the last week plus which might be of interest to TOCWOC readers:

• NP: July 25, 1919 Adirondack Record (Au Sable, NY): The 118th NY at Chaffin’s Farm and Second Fair Oaks: Heman Baker, a member of the 118th New York, describes in detail his regiment’s role in the battles of Chaffin’s Farm (September 29, 1864) and Second Fair Oaks (October 27, 1864).
• Civil War Book Giveaway: Win a FREE Copy of One of Earl J. Hess’ Civil War Fortifications Trilogy: If you missed it earlier this week, you can enter for a chance to win a free paperback copy of one of Earl J. Hess’ field fortifications trilogy.  All you have to do is sign up for The Siege of Petersburg Online’s email RSS feed.
• NT: May 1, 1890 National Tribune: Front of Petersburg, Fort Gregg, April 2, 1865: A member of Harris’ Mississippi Brigade writes in to the mouthpiece of Union soldiers in the postwar years, the National Tribune, to describe what he witnessed of the defense of Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865.  Gregg was defended in a last ditch effort to reach sundown and evacuate Petersburg and Richmond in relative safety.
• NP: October 3, 1864 Philadelphia Inquirer: The Left Wing, Poplar Springs Church, September 29: The Philadelphia Inquirer, widely regarded as one of the most fair newspapers of the Civil War era in its combat coverage, had an imbedded reporter with the Army of the Potomac as Grant’s Fifth Offensive against Richmond and Petersburg got underway.
• NP: October 3, 1864 Philadelphia Inquirer: The Right Wing, Chaffin’s Farm, September 29: A separate imbedded reporter covered events on the Army of the James’ front.
• NP: October 3, 1864 Philadelphia Inquirer: Latest War News, September 29
• 7th New York Veteran Infantry: Unit pages have been created for almost every regiment, battery, and battalion which fought at the the first two Siege of Petersburg offensives.  I’m slowly working my way through the Third Offensive orders of battle, and this regiment is one which happened to be new to the front in July 1864.
• UPR: Richard S. Ewell’s Description of the Battle of Fort Harrison, September 29, 1864: I was able to obtain an excerpt from Richard S. Ewell describing the events at the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm on September 29, 1864 from Duke University’s Rubenstein Library.  This is a transcription of the excerpt as well as images of the actual pages.  Ewell’s “report” in the Official Records is two lines and is only discussing action later in the day at Fort Gilmer.
• Savas Beatie and the Siege of Petersburg: Check out the major plans Savas Beatie has for new and reprinted Siege of Petersburg books, just in time for the Sesquicentennial.
• LT: June 17, 1864 George Hogg: Major George Hogg of the 2nd New York Heavy Artillery was quite the character.  This is the first of a long line of letters from the front at Petersburg penned by Hogg.
• Book Review: Richmond Must Fall: The Richmond-Petersburg Campaign, October 1864: Check out this great new look at the Sixth Offensive, the only book to cover all of these events in detail by Hampton Newsome.
• BTC Sources: Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm: To Surprise and Capture Richmond: In the BTC Sources series, I make note of interesting sources I might be able to find and use later at the Siege of Petersburg Online.  In this new book on Fort Harrison, I found and was able to obtain several items from the Richmond National Battlefield files (hat tip to R.E.L. Krick).
• NP: October 6, 1905 Herald and News (Newberry, SC): J. B. Lyles Captures 600 Men at 2nd Fair Oaks: Joseph Banks Lyles of Bratton’s South Carolina Brigade saw a Yankee attack on the Williamsburg ROad wavering.  Seeing the hesitation and how the Union soldiers were pinned down, Lyles ran out and singelhandely captured hundreds of Northern prisoners.  Hampton Newsome verifies this story with many corroborating witnesses in Richmond Must Fall.  This was a recollection from brigade commander John Bratton many years later, in which he wrote to Lyles’ daughter to tell her what he remembered of the feat (hat tip to K. Scott McPhail, who maintains the Thread the Rude Eye Civil War blog).
• Fort Harrison and the Battle of Chaffin’s Farm: To Surprise and Capture Richmond by Douglas Crenshaw: Here;s a new book on the Battle of Fort Harrison, fought during Grant;s Fifth Offensive against Richmond and Petersburg.  Butler came close to breaking Lee’s lines south of Richmond that day, and this was the closest Richmond came to being evacuated before it actually happened on April 3, 1865.  This is from The History Press Civil War Sesquicentennial series.
• NP: March 19, 1901 Winnsboro (SC) News and Herald: In The Trenches of Petersburg, June-August 1864: Jonathan H. Neil, of the 7th South Carolina Battalion, Hagood’s Brigade, writes of the fighting endured by the brigade from June-August 1864, including the Second Battle of Petersburg and the slaughter of his brigade on August 21, 1864 at Globe Tavern.