The Confederate Counterattack

Once the Sixth Corps completed its breakthrough, corps commander Horatio Wright ordered seven of his eight brigades to pivot southwest and move against the remaining Confederate defenses north of Hatcher’s Run, leaving only Colonel Joseph E. Hamblin’s brigade to hold the ground already captured. Confederate division commander Major General Cadmus M. Wilcox responded by organizing about 600 troops from Brigadier General James H. Lane’s North Carolina Brigade and Brigadier General Edward L. Thomas’ Georgia Brigade to try to recover the lost lines and, at minimum, delay any movement against Petersburg until fresh Confederate troops could arrive from north of the Appomattox River. Wilcox’s counterattack drove elements of Hamblin’s Pennsylvanians, New Yorkers, and Connecticut men back from their advanced positions to this vicinity, and the Confederates formed a thin defensive line along Church Road perpendicular to their old works that temporarily blocked further Union advance. Later that morning, however, the Sixth Corps, supported by other Union troops, returned and forced Wilcox’s men to retreat again, setting the stage for the afternoon battle at Fort Gregg.

Virginia · United States