New Market Heights
New Market Heights
Chaffin's Farm
In September 1864, in order to draw Gen. Robert E. Lee's attention from a movement against the Southside Railroad west of Petersburg, Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered a diversionary attack against the Confederate fortifications around Richmond. During the night of September 28-29, Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James crossed the James River to assault the Richmond defenses. Butler's objective was the south end of the Confederate line anchored on the north bank of the James in an open area near the Chaffin family farm. Butler's right column, the Tenth Corps under Maj. Gen. David Birney, would attack the Confederate positions on the high ground above the New Market Road, while his left under Maj. Gen. Edward O. C. Ord would attack nearby Fort Harrison on the Richmond defensive perimeter. Both columns attacked at dawn on the 29th. After initial Union successes on both fronts, the Confederates rallied and contained the breakthrough. A brigade of U. S. Colored Troops in Birney's corps performed bravely in the attack on New Market Heights. Lee reinforced his lines north of the James and, on September 30th, counterattacked unsuccessfully. The Federals entrenched, and the Confederates erected a new line of works cutting off the captured forts. As Grant anticipated, Lee shifted 10,000 troops to meet the new threat against Richmond, weakening his lines west of Petersburg.
Battle Facts
Result
Union Victory
COMMANDERS
Forces Engaged
41,100
Union
26,600
Confederate
14,500
Total Estimated Casualties
5,900
Union
4,150
Confederate
1,750
Civil War
Battle Map
BATTLE MAP | American Battlefield Trust’s map of the Battle of New Market Heights, Virginia on...
Civil War
Battle Map
BATTLE MAP | American Battlefield Trust's map of the Battle of Second Petersburg, Virginia on June...
Civil War
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