Volume XXIII Issue #5 • An Excerpt From:

Action in the Petersburg Campaign

The Battle of Weldon Railroad
(or Globe Tavern), August 18-19 & 21, 1864
by Chris Calkins

Hancock the (Not So) Superb
The Second Battle of Reams’ Station, August 25, 1864
by Bruce M. Venter

Click Here to view a free sample map from this article
Note: All Blue & Gray feature articles are annotated.

The Battle of Weldon Railroad
(or Globe Tavern)

August 18-19 & 21, 1864

by Chris Calkins
Chief of Interpretation, Petersburg National Battlefield

In the initial days of fighting around Petersburg, Virginia, two of the four rail lines leading into the city were already nullified of their use by the Confederacy. (See Maps 1 & 2.) This included the old City Point Railroad (now the eastern branch of the South Side Railroad), and the Norfolk & Petersburg line. The former terminated at City Point, located at the confluence of the James and Appomattox Rivers and just ten miles northeast of Petersburg. At City Point, Grant set up his headquarters while the location served as the Union army’s logistics and supply base. The Norfolk & Petersburg Railroad ran to Hampton Roads. Norfolk had been under control of the Federal army since 1862. Consequently, the railroad was of little use to Confederate forces for most of the war.

On the other hand, the two most important supply lines that Lee must continue to control were the Weldon Railroad and the South Side Railroad. The Weldon Railroad, also known as the Petersburg Railroad, ran due south into North Carolina. Just over the border it terminated at Weldon where it connected with the Wilmington & Weldon Railroad. Wilmington, the last major port open to the Confederacy for foreign trade, was an extremely important supply point to the Southern forces defending Richmond and Petersburg. This line also extended into the interior of North Carolina, which had not yet been ravaged by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman’s army, and provided a connection with other routes into the Deep South.

The South Side Railroad, besides extending eastward to the wharfs at City Point (a stretch of road now denied to the Confederates) it also ran due west to Lynchburg where it became the Virginia & Tennessee Railroad. At Lynchburg it also connected with the Orange & Alexandria Railroad running northeast to Charlottes-ville where it junctioned with the Virginia Central Railroad. This road ran across the mountains into the Shenandoah Valley, the “Breadbasket of the Confederacy.” About 60 miles west of Petersburg, at Burkeville, the South Side crossed with the Richmond & Danville Railroad that ran directly into the Confederate capital city.

With the V Corps holding the Union army’s left flank along the Jerusalem Plank Road, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, still commander of the Army of the Potomac even though Grant was in overall command, selected both the II Corps and VI Corps to make an offensive movement to the west against the Weldon Railroad.

The terrain through which the two corps would pass was relatively flat and low (between 150-170 feet above sea level), marshy in many places because of poor drainage, and thickly encumbered with underbrush and briers. The soil was sandy and the timber largely composed of loblolly pines and oaks. It was dotted by some open fields, most with maturing corn at the time of the battle, farm lanes, and a large number of wooded lots. It was just the type of landscape that would make it hard for troops to maneuver, at the same time providing concealment for any attacking enemy troops.

A key landmark in the area, located along the Weldon Railroad, was Globe Tavern. It was also known as Six Mile Station, Yellow Tavern (for its yellow stucco walls), Blick’s Station (for a nearby farmhouse), and would eventually serve as Federal army headquarters during the fighting in the area.

Names of local farmers whose property dotted the countryside between Jerusalem Plank Road and the railroad were: Strong, Johnson (or G. Bailey), Aiken, Lanier, Dr. Gurley, Blick, Dunlop, Flowers, Newcomb (or Whitehead), W. P. Davis, and Wells.

The named roadways cutting though the contested ground include, from east to west, Johnson Road (known earlier as Bailey’s), Halifax Road, Vaughan Road, and Squirrel Level Road. The Halifax Road ran parallel to the Weldon Railroad and extended to Halifax, North Carolina, where it reached that port on the Roanoke River.

Jerusalem Plank Road
“First Weldon Railroad”
June 21-23, 1864

Once Grant realized he could not take Petersburg by direct force, he allowed Meade to dispatch his II Corps, then under Maj. Gen. David Bell Birney, along with the VI Corps commanded by Maj. Gen. Horatio G. Wright, to move against their first target—the Weldon Railroad. This movement coincided with a cavalry raid led by Brig. Gens. James H. Wilson and August V. Kautz against the South Side and the Richmond & Danville Railroads. They were to raid these supply lines, inflict as much damage as possible, then return to the Petersburg lines near Reams’ Station on the Weldon Railroad. It was hoped that Reams’ Station would be under the Federal army’s control when they got there.
On June 22, as the two Union corps moved westward from the Jerusalem Plank Road toward the Weldon Railroad, the II