March 19, 1865
Artillery duel between a Confederate rifle battery on Baxter Road and Union Fort Avery, followed by another duel between Confederate mortars on Cemetery Hill and Union Fort Morton and Union Battery 15.
Ulysses S. Grant orders the 2,000-3,000 slaves which joined General Sheridan’s expedition from the Shenandoah Valley to be sent to Fort Monroe and on to employment and settlement.
Col. Robert M. West and the Cavalry, Army of the James return to camp safely.
Major General George L. Hartsuff is formally appointed to command the Defenses of Bermuda Hundred.
Grant orders Sheridan to set off on a cavalry expedition to destroy the South Side and Danville railroads, then rejoin Grant or go to Sherman as the situation dictates.
Major General Pickett’s Division, First Corps, is ordered into the Confederate outer line between the Charles City Road and Nine Mile Road.
Note: All “Today In The Petersburg Campaign” blog entries are used with permission from Ronald A. Mosocco’s Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War per the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. Order the book HERE.
Copyright © 1993, 1994 by Ronald A. Mosocco
Mentions of This Date at The Siege of Petersburg Online:
- LT: March 19, 1865 Luther Rice Mills (26th Virginia)
- OR XLVI P1 #4: Itineraries of the Army of the Potomac, Sheridan’s Cavalry Command, and the Army of the James, January-April 1865
- OR XLVI P1 #7: Report of Bvt. Lieutenant Col Nathaniel Michler, Acting Chief Engineer, AotP, March 11-18, 1865
- OR XLVI P1 #217: Report of Major General George L. Hartsuff, commanding Defenses of Bermuda Hundred, AotJ, Mar 19-Apr 9, 1865