August 25, 1864
Fought on August 25, 1864, during the Petersburg Campaign, the Battle of Ream's Station II was a Confederate victory that followed the destruction by Union forces of several miles of the Weldon Railroad.
On March 10, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln appointed Ulysses S. Grant as General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States. Grant brought with him, from his successes in the Western Theater of the war, a reputation for the doggedness that Lincoln was seeking in his generals. Unlike previous Union generals, whose leadership was marked by their own timidity, Grant was tenacious. Upon his arrival in Washington, Grant drafted a plan to get the various Union armies in the field to act in concert. He also devised his Overland Campaign to invade east-central Virginia. Unlike previous campaigns into that area, Grant's plan focused upon defeating General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, rather than capturing or occupying geographic locations. Grant instructed General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac, "Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." Grant realized that, with the superior resources he had at his disposal, Lee was destined to lose a war of attrition, as long as Northern troops persistently engaged the Confederates.
On May 4, 1864, Grant launched his Overland Campaign when the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rappahannock and Rapidan Rivers, occupying an area locally known as the Wilderness. For the next eight weeks, the two sides engaged in a series of horrific battles that produced unprecedented numbers of casualties. Following a bloody frontal assault at Cold Harbor that cost the Federals an estimated thirteen thousand casualties, Grant abandoned his hope to defeat Lee's army head-on. Instead, Grant decided to isolate the Army of Northern Virginia at Richmond and, then, slowly to starve it into submission by cutting off its supply lines. The key to the plan was capturing Petersburg, Virginia.
Petersburg, Virginia, is located on the south bank of the Appomattox River, roughly twenty miles below Richmond. During the Civil War, the two cities were connected by the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, which served as an important conduit for supplies to the Confederate capital. In addition to the Richmond and Petersburg Railroad, two other rail lines converged at Petersburg. The Weldon Railroad (also called the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad) connected Petersburg to the Confederacy's last linkage to overseas markets at Wilmington, North Carolina. Farther to the west, the South Side Railroad joined Petersburg to Lynchburg, Virginia and points westward. If Grant could cut these rail lines, Lee would be forced to abandon Richmond.
Grant and Meade began extending the Union line south of Petersburg to the west in late June, when they gained control of the Jerusalem Plank Road. In August, they once again stretched their line, when Major General Gouverneur K. Warren's 5th Corps captured and maintained control of a section of the Weldon Railroad in the vicinity of Globe Tavern, about six miles south of Petersburg.
After Warren's victory at the Battle of Globe Tavern (August 18–21, 1864), Grant made preparations to destroy the Weldon Railroad south of Petersburg as far as practicable. Grant and Meade assigned the task to Major General Winfield Scott Hancock's 2nd Corps, whose 8,500 men were already spent from participating in the Battle of Deep Bottom II (August 14–20, 1864). The two generals also ordered Brigadier-General David M. Gregg's cavalry division to support the operation. Gregg's troopers began clearing Rebel pickets from the Weldon Railroad’s tracks south of Globe Tavern on August 22. Following a forced march, Hancock's men reached the railroad and began destroying tracks soon thereafter.
Early on August 23, a division of Hancock's men, commanded by Brigadier-General John Gibbon, arrived at Ream’s Station, approximately six miles south of Globe Tavern. Upon their arrival, the Federals occupied earthworks that Union cavalrymen had constructed during the Wilson-Kautz Raid in June. Horseshoe-shaped, with the opening facing eastward, the temporary entrenchments were in disrepair, and Hancock's men made little effort to improve them.
By August 24, the Yankees proceeded to destroy three miles of track south of Ream's Station, leaving just five miles remaining to reach their objective of disabling the railroad as far as Rowatny Creek. They planned to finish the job the next day, but Confederate General Robert E. Lee had other ideas.
The possibility of being further isolated at Petersburg by the complete loss of a major supply route forced Lee to contest Hancock's destruction of the Weldon Railroad south of Globe Tavern. Consequently, he ordered Lieutenant General A.P. Hill to lead a force of eight thousand tp ten thousand Confederate soldiers south to stop the destruction.
On the morning of August 25, Major General Wade Hampton's cavalry challenged Gregg's cavalry south of Ream's Station and drove them back to the perceived safety of their meager fortifications. Meanwhile, Hill's main infantry force advanced down the Dinwiddie Stage Road and assaulted the northern leg of the horseshoe at approximately 2 p.m., without much success. A second Rebel assault also failed to dislodge the Bluecoats.
As Confederate reinforcements from the divisions of Major General Henry Heth and Brigadier-General William Mahone arrived later in the day, the Rebels mounted a third assault at 5:30 p.m. This time the Greycoats broke through the northwest corner of the horseshoe, after two Union regiments panicked and ran, opening a gap in the Union lines. Hancock personally rallied his forces enough to accomplish an organized retreat at approximately 8 p.m., but only after the Rebels had captured nearly two thousand Yankees.
The Confederates scored a tactical victory at the Battle of Ream's Station II. They suffered only 814 reported losses, compared to an estimated 2,747 Union losses (140 killed, 529 wounded, and 2073 captured). Nonetheless, the triumph was shallow. It came too late to prevent significant destruction to the Weldon Railroad south of Globe Tavern. With his lines at Petersburg depleted by the deployment of Hill's force, Lee was unable to hold the ground the Rebels had won or to repair the tracks. For the remainder of the campaign, Confederate supplies to Petersburg had to be transferred to wagons and transported up the Boydton Plank Road through Dinwiddie Court House. Perhaps more importantly, the loss of the Weldon Railroad enabled Grant to turn his attention to the South Side Railroad, Lee's last rail link to the rest of the Confederacy.
Ohio units that participated in the Battle of Ream’s Station II included:
Infantry units:
Four companies of the 4th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Infantry
Cavalry units:
6th Regiment Ohio Volunteer Cavalry
;
Related Entries
- Ulysses S. Grant
- Winfield Scott Hancock
- Overland Campaign
- Ohio Volunteer Infantry
- Abraham Lincoln
- Robert Edward Lee
- Ambrose Powell Hill
- Wade Hampton III
- Battle of Deep Bottom II
- Battle of Ream’s Station I
- Battle of Globe Tavern
- Petersburg Campaign
- Army of the Potomac (USA)
- Winfield Scott
- Army of Northern Virginia
