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Volume XXV Issue #1 An Excerpt From: Lees Last Offensive By William C. Wyrick Click Here to view a free sample map from this article |
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Even though he was the youngest of Lees corps commanders, Gordon had already established a reputation for being crammed with courage and brimming with enterprise. He had sustained five wounds while leading his brigade at Antietam. Within the past year, while serving under Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley, he had conducted daring attacks on Union Generals Lew Wallace at the Monocacy River and Horatio Wright at Cedar Creek.2 Gordon wrote that he was called out into a miserable night at 2:00 a.m. Upon arriving at Lees headquarters on the outskirts of Petersburg, Gordon wrote that he was greeted by a chief whose face reflected painful depression.3 The overwrought Lee launched into a discussion of field reports indicating the dire nature of their predicament. On paper Lees Army of Northern Virginia numbered only 57,000, and the effective count was much less. The addition of Joe Johnstons army in the Carolinas, disintegrating before William T. Shermans relentless advance from Savannah, would raise the total available to Lee to no more than 80,000. In contrast, Lees estimate of the strength of Ulysses S. Grants forces already fronting Petersburgthe Armies of the Potomac and the Jameswas well above 100,000 troops. Lee feared that with the arrival of Phil Sheridans divisions from the Shenandoah Valley and the legions of Generals Sherman and John M. Schofield from North Carolina, the number of troops available to Grant would grow to 280,000.4
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