The Battle of Harmon Road

On the final day of the Battle of Peebles’ Farm, October 2, 1864, Union troops of Brigadier General Gershom Mott’s Third Division, Second Army Corps, advanced against Confederate breastworks at the Hart Farm to determine whether the trenches were vulnerable to attack. As the Federals moved up Duncan Road, which they called Harmon Road, they met light resistance from Confederate cavalrymen while Major General Henry Heth hurried infantry to the area. When Mott’s soldiers advanced from the low ground across the field, North Carolinians of Brigadier General William MacRae’s Brigade entered the works and, with musketry and artillery fire, repulsed the attack. In mid-afternoon, four Federal regiments under Lieutenant Colonel George Zinn advanced again to test the Confederate defenses, but two more infantry brigades from Heth’s division had reinforced MacRae and easily stopped the assault. Zinn suffered a severe leg wound and was carried from the field by his men. Fewer than 70 Union soldiers became casualties in the action known as the Battle of Harmon Road, while Confederate losses are unknown but probably light. Mott’s division then withdrew toward Peebles’ Farm and entrenched, and the two armies remained on these lines until April 2, 1865.

Virginia · United States