On to Petersburg - by Gordon C Rhea

Book Synopsis

With On to Petersburg, Gordon C. Rhea completes his much-lauded history of the Overland Campaign, a series of Civil War battles fought between Generals Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee in southeastern Virginia in the spring of 1864. Having previously covered the campaign in his magisterial volumes on The Battle of the Wilderness, The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, To the North Anna River, and Cold Harbor, Rhea ends this series with a comprehensive account of the last twelve days of the campaign, which concluded with the beginning of the siege of Petersburg.

On to Petersburg follows the Union army's movement to the James River, the military response from the Confederates, and the initial assault on Petersburg, which Rhea suggests marked the true end of the Overland Campaign. Beginning his account in the immediate aftermath of Grant's three-day attack on Confederate troops at Cold Harbor, Rhea argues that the Union general's primary goal was not--as often supposed--to take Richmond, but rather to destroy Lee's army by closing off its retreat routes and disrupting its supply chains. While Grant struggled at times to communicate strategic objectives to his subordinates and to adapt his army to a faster-paced, more flexible style of warfare, Rhea suggests that the general successfully shifted the military landscape in the Union's favor.

On the rebel side, Lee and his staff predicted rightly that Grant would attempt to cross the James River and lay siege to the Army of Northern Virginia while simultaneously targeting Confederate supply lines. Rhea examines how Lee, facing a better-provisioned army whose troops outnumbered Lee's two to one, consistently fought the Union army to an impasse, employing risky, innovative field tactics to counter Grant's forces.

Like the four volumes that preceded it, On to Petersburg represents decades of research and scholarship and will stand as the most authoritative history of the final battles in the campaign.

Review Quotes

On to Petersburg brings to a triumphant close Gordon Rhea's authoritative treatment of the Overland campaign between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Marked by the impeccable scholarship, descriptive grace, and analytical acuity of the previous four volumes, it illustrates the rich possibilities when a gifted historian engages with an important and dramatic topic.--Gary W. Gallagher, author of The Union War

Gordon Rhea's On to Petersburg maintains the high standards so widely praised in his previous four volumes on the Overland Campaign. Rhea has established himself as the undisputed authority on the momentous struggle between Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant in May and June of 1864, and the deep research, lucid analysis, and engaging writing of this last volume in his series only enhances that reputation.--A. Wilson Greene, author of The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign

In this fifth and final volume of his magisterial study of Grant's Overland Campaign from the Wilderness to Petersburg, Gordon Rhea maintains the high standard of the preceding volumes. He shows in clear and engrossing detail how the brilliant stroke of the Army of the Potomac's disengagement from Cold Harbor failed in the end to capture Petersburg, thereby prolonging the war and its crushing casualties another ten months.--James M. McPherson, author of The War That Forged a Nation: Why the Civil War Still Matters

About the Author

Gordon C. Rhea is the author of The Battle of the Wilderness, May 5-6, 1864, winner of the Civil War Regiments Book Award; The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern, May 7-12, 1864; and Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26-June 3, 1864, winner of the Austin Civil War Round Table's Laney Prize.