Unit Pages for Third Offensive at the Siege of Petersburg
Those of you who follow The Siege of Petersburg Online know that one of my current semi-near term goals is to work my way through Volumes XL, XLII, and XLVI of the Official Records for Northern units and through The Confederate Order of Battle, Volume 1: The Army of Northern Virginia by F. Ray Sibley, Jr. for Southern units which participated in the Siege of Petersburg. There are few and conflicting orders of battle for the Siege of Petersburg out there, so I’m trying to work slowly but deliberately to create detailed and correct orders of battle for all nine offensives at Petersburg, noting when units moved and to where The number and location of regiments, battalions and batteries which fought at Petersburg, with some coming and going once or multiple times, can be extremely confusing if you’re new to the campaign.
I’m pleased to announce that after working hard for quite some time off and on since 2011, all unit pages should now be filled out for the first three offensives using the reference works outlined above. Check out the results on this Siege of Petersburg units page. I’m hard at work now on the Fourth Offensive, with the Union Second Corps finished online, the rest of the Union units sitting on my hard drive waiting to get posted, and the Confederates printed out and ready to be worked on very shortly. Pretty soon, I also hope to post one page orders of battle for each of the first three offensives in a tidy format which others can use for reference. A longer term goal is to produce accurate orders of battle for the various Petersburg battles, noting which units were present only and leaving any others out, with explanations if necessary.
My ultimate goal is to finish each offensive completely prior to the 150th anniversary of said offensive. These unit pages are the heart of The Siege of Petersburg Online. They serve as a sort of “home base” from which to explore the site. At the bottom of each and every one of the hundreds of unit pages, you’ll find every single article where that unit is mentioned on the entire site. I’m working feverishly to finish this initial stage of research, and I’ll follow that up by using regimental histories fromm 1866 to the present day to fill in the details. For now, I’ve extended my grace period to July 31, 2014. Wish me luck on the rest of the Fourth Offensive and the other five. I’ll need it!