Mortars in the Battle and Siege of Petersburg, Virginia

During the United States War of the Rebellion, from the beginning of hostilities, part of the overall strategy to reduce the Confederacy always included plans to capture the second Confederate capitol of Richmond, Virginia.
Ulysses Simpson Grant assumed overall command of the Federal armies, and the Lieutenant Generalcy that went with the job, on March 11, of 1864. After sustaining several inconclusive battles in May of the year in order to pin-down Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, Grant determined to transfer his army to the south side of the James River in an attempt to cut off the chief source of supplies for the Confederate army and move on Richmond from the south, with Federal forces under Major General Benjamin Butler pressuring Richmond from the south east. Grant reorganized the Army of the Potomac into two forces, each the equal of Lee's army in force. One was stationed for the defence of the city of Washington, D.C. The other as a powerful column of active operations. On the night of May 20 Grant began his operation with a flank movement, setting into motion a force of 55,000 men, Lee countering with a parallel march of his forces which resulted in a battle at Cold Harbor, June 1-3, 1864. Grant's attempt at a movement from the south apon Richmond through Petersburg stalled on June 16 resulting in a siege of Petersburg, an eventuality his army was well prepared for. A siege train had been organized under the direction of Brigadier General John Gross Barnard , Chief Engineer, Army of the Potomac, at the behest of Brigadier General Henry J. Hunt, Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac. Command of the siege train, which followed the landing of three divisions of the Tenth Corps from troop transports in priority of movement into City Point on the James River, devolved around Colonel Henry Larcom Abbot, of the 1st Connecticutt Heavy Artillery. The Siege of Petersburg lasted until April of 1865, about ten months. General Halleck ordered this Siege Train in motion with orders of April 20th stating, "to get the train afloat at Washington Arsenal with all possible speed". The Siege Train took up positions at Bermuda Hundred on May 13th, awaiting the arrival of the mass of the Army of the Potomac. Heavy Mortars figure prominently on both side in the events that were the Siege of Petersburg, Virginia, Colonel Abbot writing of the siege train long after the fact, "It was, therefore, considered as indispensable that we should bring, in addition to the horozontal, a powerful vertical fire to bear apon the redoubt and sunken batteries near it. All the siege Mortars remaining in the train (viz. ten 10-inch and six 8-inch) were, therefore, set apart for this service. The Coehorns were distributed along the line, so that all points of the enemies position should be more or less under a vertical fire". The batteries for the different corps were constructed under the general direction of Major James Chatham Duane, Chief Engineer. The total number of Federal Mortars on the line was fifty-four at the height of the siege.
General Lee arrived on the field at Petersburg on June 18, 1864 at 11:30 a.m. and was appraised of the military situation by General P.G.T. Beauregard. Lee sent a telegram at 3:30 a.m. on this date to the Superintendent of the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad enquiring about the state of the lines as it was imperative to move troops to Petersburg. Lee moved his forces, Kershaw's and Field's Divisions, into the new defensive lines covering Petersburg and the Weldon railroad this date, calling to his assistance Major-General William Mahone, an engineer familiar with the topography of the Petersburg area, as to the development of a defensive line.
The first battery of Mortars to engage at the siege were the battery of the Fourth New York Heavy Artillery who arrived at the rear of the Federal Petersburg lines at 2:30 a.m. on the 16th of June, 1864. On the morning of the 17th the section took position in front of the enemie's lines at a distance of 150 yards and began firing at 1 p.m. to a distance of 300 yards with three and a half ounces of powder and a ten second fuze. According to the report of Captain James C. Wood, Battery C, Fourth New York Heavy Artillery, the firing was "successful". Engagement continued along the line until the Mortar sections were brought together on the 21st. Wood mentions inconsistencies in the strength of powder, expended, and that the new stock received reduced firing to "a mathematical certainty".
Captain Benjamin F. Smiley , Second Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery, commanding a Mortar battery attached to Ninth Corps, made a report of events of operations June-July, 1864. Smiley reported that his battery, comprised of six pieces, occupied positions south of the road leading to Petersburg, engaging the enemy on the morning of July 30, 1864, occasionally under enemy infantry charge, until 1:30 p.m., two hundred rounds being expended during the action. Smiley stated that," The operations have been such as characterize Mortar practise, firing slowly and usually very accurately. The enemy has been very much annoyed; shells were very frequently exploded in their pits, throwing men in the air and creating much confusion". The Siege Train delivered a weight of seventy-seven tons this day, firing 3,388 rounds.
Colonel H.L. Abbot, First Connecticutt Artillery, mentions that of the eighty-one guns in his charge on the Petersburg line on July 30, 1864, forty-three were mortars. He recounts that Mortar fire moved a light battery from a crest forward of the Eighteenth Corps. On the same date Lieutenant-Colonel Gilbert P. Robinson, Third Maryland Battalion reported that Confederate Mortar counter-fire did not begin until after 8 a.m.
Captain Adelbert R. Twitchell of the Seventh Maine Battery mentions a field improvization that was also common in Confederate artillery practise at the same time in his report of August 8, 1864, "During the first days of July I had one gun dismounted as a mortar, and experimented with it successfully, the result of which I forwarded in a written communication to Lieutenant Colonel Monroe, Chief of Artillery, Ninth Army Corps. My command has been highly fortunate during the forty-seven days at the front, having suffered but little in killed and wounded". The total of Federal Siege Train casualties from the beginning of the campaign to October 31st were confined entirely to the First Connecticutt Heavy Artillery. These amounted to one officer and eleven enlisted men killed and four officers and fifty-two enlisted men wounded, fifteen mortally. It was the supporting infantry, on both sides, who sustained the heavy losses during this portion of the Richmond campaign. Richmond–Petersburg was a costly campaign for both sides. The initial assaults on Petersburg in June 1864 cost the Union 11,386 casualties, to approximately 4,000 for the Confederate defenders. The casualties for the siege warfare that concluded with the assault on Fort Stedman are estimated to be 42,000 for the Union, and 28,000 for the Confederates. The First Regiment of the Maine Heavy Artillery sustained the greatest loss of any one Regiment in a single action of the war, 635 killed and wounded out of 900 engaged.
The summer of 1864 was arid and hot along the Atlantic seaboard, outbreaks of disease and crop failures became daily fare of news to Southern ears. Josiah Gorgas, head of the Ordnance Branch of the Confederate Army, located in Richmond, relates that June 26th was the hottest day yet and that a "sprinkling" of rain occured on July 7th after five weeks of drought, "scarce enough to lay the dust".
Grant, at the conclusion of this part of the Richmond Campaign, had managed to build his forces to the number of 140,000 and planned final operations against the Confederacy to take place in the Appomattox area.
As with efficient professionals of all trades the artillerymen of the Seige Train and their opposite numbers in Petersburg considered their tools-of-trade with a critical eye. General Abbot penned a critique of the practises and equipment, both Federal and Confederate, much pertaining to Mortars, in his voluminous December 5, 1864 report to Brigadier-General J.W. Turner, Chief of Staff. One mention of an equipment shortcoming was the tendency of the friction primers used to ignite the propellent charge becoming projectiles from the vent apon ignition. Two cases of this occured with injury during the Richmond Campaign's Petersburg Siege. One entailed the loss of an eye, the other a deep scalp laceration. An experiment mentioned in the report stated that thirty shot from twelve pounder canister were added to the spherical shells of the 8-inch bore Mortar shells in order to increase their effectiveness. This was deemed a failure, the weight not being sufficient to add to effectiveness.
The 13-inch seacoast mortar was intended for seige and fortifications and not field work. The Dictator, weighing in at 17,120 lbs. was made portable for limited field use during the Seige of Petersburg by being mounted on a railroad car, specially strengthened with extra beams and iron rods to withstand the strain of firing. The mortar was placed on the car and run up the tracks from City Point along the City Point and Petersburg Railroad, to a point in the ravine in rear of what is now generally known as Battery No. 5, near the Jordan House, a side track from the main road being constructed especially for the purpose of moving the Dictator. The idea of using the 13 inch bore Seacoast Mortar as railroad artillery is credited to Major-General Benjamin Butler, who lent the Seacoast Mortar to the Siege Train from his command.
The men of Company G of the 1st Connecticut Heavy Artillery, under Captain Osbourne, served the Dictator. The First Connecticut Heavy Artillery, originally the Fourth Connecticut Infantry, was the first volunteer organization that was mustered for three years into the service of the United States (May 22, 1861-September 25, 1865).
A curve in the tracks allowed the Dictator's gunners to stay mobile and adjust the plane of fire. The power of this weapon, with its two-hundred and twenty five pound shell, was enough to shatter most field magazines and bomb-proofs, and it is credited with causing the Confederate gunners to withdraw their attempts at enfilade fire along the right of the Union line.
Colonel Abbot received a telegram at 11:30 p.m. on the night of July 30th, 1864 from Brigadier-General Henry J. Hunt ordering him to, "Withdraw all the train from the front of the Fifth and Ninth Corps, with a part of the train forward of the Eighteenth Corps." The two-hundred wagons required for the job moved 225 tons of ordnance material seven miles, secretly, and all the ordnance requested withdrawn was aboard schooners and barges on the James River in thirty-six hours. Abbot stated that he would return the rail mounted 13-inch Seacoast Mortar, "once the track is repaired". It was obvious that Confederate forces could not mount a counter-attack to the failed Federal attempt to breech the Petersburg lines. The end of the war was in sight, though requiring nine more months of bitter fighting till the Army of Northern Virginia was reduced to terms. Brigadier General Henry J. Hunt, Chief of Artillery, Army of the Potomac, mentions in his combined monthly reports of operations for July, August and September, dated October 25, 1864, that "The organization, management and service of the siege train entitle its commander, Colonel Abbot, to whom its efficiency is due, promotion." Hunt is responsible for the original conception of the siege train through his correspondence to Army of the Potomac, Chief of Staff, Major-General Humphreys of April 16, 1864. On August 1, 1864 Abbot was brevetted to Brigadier-General of Volunteers, being charged with the command of all siege artillery of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of the James until December of 1864.
As the siege developed from the initial battle the Confederate officer charged with the command of the artillery defense for the whole line from the Appomattox River to the James River was General Edward Porter Alexander. Alexander mentions in his memoirs that he received his first installment of mortars, twelve of them, on June 24, 1864 and had them in action on the 25th. Alexander put the mortars, Coehorns, in charge of a Captain Lampkin, whose artillery company of 120 men until then had been unemployed due to a lack of ordnance. These mortars were used to engage Federal works in front of the Elliot salient and were attached to Major John C. Haskell's Battalion of four batteries of the First Corp.
The Confederate reports of the siege include descriptions of Federal Mortar usage with frequency. Brigadier-General John Bratton, of Field's Division, mentions the incessent Mortar shelling in his January 1, 1865 report.
With Confederate defeat at Five Forks on April 1, Grant and Meade ordered a general assault against the Petersburg lines by II, IX, VI and XXIV Corps on April 2. Jacob R. Tucker, Corporal in the 4th Maryland Infantry, USA, was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions that day. The citation reads," Was one of three soldiers most conspicuous in the final assault". A heroic defense of Fort Gregg by a handful of Confederates prevented the Federals from entering the city that night. Commander of the III Corps, ANV, Lt. Gen.Ambrose P. Hill was killed trying to reach his troops in the confusion, lifted from the saddle of his horse, Champ, a grey, by one shot fired by a Corporal of the VI Corps armed with a Springfield rifle. After dark, Lee ordered the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. Grant had achieved one of the major military objectives of the war: the capture of Petersburg, which led to the fall of Richmond, the Capitol of the Confederacy. Several small battles and skirmish actions took place after the fall of Petersburg, further eroding the abilities of the Army of Northern Virginia's to forstall the inevitable. The end of the Richmond Campaign took the form of a series of notes passed between Grant and Lee by courier leading to a meeting between them on the Richmond Pike on April 10, both men on horses. The final terms were agreed to at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, in the house of Wilmer McLean. Mclean's property in July of 1861 was at Blackburn's Ford, near Bull Run, the site of the first battle between the North and South on Virginian soil, now, four years later and two hundred miles distant, McLean again become an unwilling participant in the events. Lee accepted terms for the surrender of his army, which were written out by Grant. Around four o'clock on the afternoon of April 12th, 1865, the surrender completed, both men stood, bowed and shook hands, returning to their respective commands. Lee refused to speak for President Davis and the Confederate government, just committing himself to the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia. With news of this surrender other armies, recognizing the situation, began to surrender, Johnston in North Carolina on April 26, Richard Taylor on May 4 at Citronella, Mississippi and Edmund Kirby Smith on May 26th. Seperate brigades were organized under Major-General Q.A. Gilmore in order to eliminate isolated pockets of resistance and sent afield.