On 17 June 1864, Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee briefly made his headquarters at Clay's house east of here, where he received full details of the Union army's attack on Petersburg that had begun on the evening of 15 June 1864. He learned that Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant had committed most of the Union Army of the Potomac to assault the Petersburg fortifications commanded by Confederate Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard. Realizing that Petersburg stood in immediate danger, Lee left his nearby headquarters early the next morning and went with most of his army to reinforce the garrison there.