The Battle of Petersburg’s intense four-day clash marked a missed Union opportunity, prolonging the Civil War with dramatic consequences.

May and June 1864 in Virginia witnessed some of the most brutal and bloody fighting of the Civil War. Combined losses for the two armies after the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, North Anna, and Cold Harbor exceeded 80,000 killed, wounded, and captured. The result? A stalemate outside Richmond.

The carnage notwithstanding, Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant set his armies toward their next target: the logistical powerhouse of Petersburg. His bold maneuver, which included the construction of a lengthy pontoon bridge across the broad James River and a surprise march against the city, caught Confederate commander Gen. Robert E. Lee by surprise. Petersburg was lightly guarded and seemed at the mercy of the Federals. Its capture would sever the lifelines into Richmond, force the evacuation of the Southern capital, and ensure President Abraham Lincoln’ s reelection, eliminating whatever thin hopes the Confederacy still had for victory.

Petersburg’s small garrison was determined to hold the city. Its department commander, Gen. P. G. T. Beauregard, realized the danger and shifted as many men as he could spare into the defenses and took the field himself. North of the river, meanwhile, Lee remained unconvinced that Grant had stolen a march on him. The four days of fighting that followed (June 15–18) would determine if the war would end or drag on.

Somehow, the Confederates managed to hold on against the bungled Federal effort and fight them to a standstill. Lee’s army finally began arriving on June 18. Petersburg would hold—for now. Beauregard’s impressive achievement was one of the South’s last strategic victories.