Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 [Hardcover]

John J. Fox (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 3, 2010

Robert E. Lee faced the most monumental crisis of his military career on the morning of April 2, 1865. By sunrise that morning, the Union 6th Corps had punched a huge hole in Lee's outer line, southwest of Petersburg. He needed time for reinforcements to arrive from Richmond, but how could his depleted army buy that time? Amidst overwhelming odds, this suicide mission fell to a handful of Confederates who made a desperate last stand at Fort Gregg. Famous historian Douglas Southall Freeman called this epic fight "one of the most dramatic incidents of an overwhelming day," and yet it has been overshadowed by all the other historic events of April 1865. Fourteen Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for their bravery at Fort Gregg. Many battle-scarred veterans from both sides described this clash as the nastiest of their four-year war experience. The Confederate Alamo is the first battle study ever written about this strategic fight.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Fox's sweeping narrative, insightful analysis of events, and use of individual accounts personalizes combat during this very bloody battle at Petersburg. It is military history at its best"  --Civil War News, Michael Russert, January 2011

"[A] fine addition to 'drums and trumpets' Civil War scholarship." --America's Civil War, Ethan S. Rafuse, November 2010

"It is a well balanced presentation of the struggle, both inside and outside the fort, giving both the Confederate and Union points of view." --Jim Miller, Civil War Notebook Blog, February 27, 2011

"The battle action is well written, entertaining, and ties in nicely with the regimental maps scattered throughout the book." --Brett Schulte, Beyond the Crater Blog, February 1, 2011.

"[A] great example of the sort of polished, professionally done book that is coming out of some of the better small presses today." --Fred Ray, TOCWOC- A Civil War blog, July 23, 2010, and author of Shock Troops of the Confederacy.

“Thoroughly researched, Mr. Fox’s tome is an impressive scholarly achievement.  It is a well balanced presentation of the struggle, both inside and outside the fort, giving both the Confederate and Union points of view.” Jim Miller, Civil War Notebook Blog, February 27, 2011.

“The battle action is well written, entertaining, and ties in nicely with the regimental maps scattered throughout the book.”  “Chapters are broken down chronologically and by unit with the alternating views of the action between the Confederate and Union perspective. This creates a growing tension in a desperate situation as the fort’s defenders are slowly whittled down in strength and ammunition.”   “A well-told account of one of the most dramatic last stands in the entire Civil War.” Brett Schulte, Beyond the Crater Blog, February 1, 2011

“John Fox’s sweeping narrative, insightful analysis of events, and use of individual accounts personalizes combat during this very bloody battle at Petersburg. It is military history at its best.”  “This is the first full study of the attack and defense of Fort Gregg, and it will long remain the seminal portrait of this brief but bloody encounter.” Michael Russert, Civil War News, January 2011.

“While recounting the events surrounding the fight for Fort Gregg in exquisite detail, he also clearly explains the decisions of the commanders who shaped the engagement and vividly recounts the experiences of the soldiers who fought there.”  “[A] fine addition to ‘drums and trumpets’ Civil War scholarship.” Ethan S. Rafuse, America’s Civil War magazine, November 2010.

“Traces the history of one of the key battles that broke the siege of Petersburg and led to the fall of Richmond and the Union’s victory. The book includes several maps and many photos.” Richmond Times-Dispatch, October 24, 2010.

 

“This is a powerfully written story and will make you proud of the Americans that fought for the Blue and Gray.” The Lone Star Book Review, August 2010.

“Fox has done an excellent job tracking down quite a number of unpublished primary sources on both sides and alternates between a tactical overview and the soldiers-eye perspective.”  “This handsome volume is a great example of the sort of polished, professionally done book that is coming out of some of the better small presses today.” Fred Ray, TOCWOC- A Civil War blog, July 23, 2010, and author of  Shock Troops of the Confederacy.

 

“The end result is an hour-to-hour, sometimes minute-to-minute account of the battle that puts the reader in the middle of the chaos inside Fort Gregg. And while Fox uses different ‘voices’ in the narrative by extensively quoting the participants, the effect flows seamlessly.” C. L. Bragg, author of  Never for Want of Powder.

“The Confederate Alamo is an impressive demonstration of author John Fox’s skill as a researcher and writer of Civil War tactical battle history. Every student captivated by the military historical aspects of the Petersburg Campaign will want a copy of this fine book. It is highly recommended.” Andrew Wagenhoffer, Civil War Books and Authors Blog, June 3, 2010.

“A riveting story of how 334 bedraggled and battle-weary Confederates stood fast against two Union corps on the morning and afternoon of April 2.”  “The result is a book meticulously researched, rich in detail and compelling story lines.” Adrian O’Connor, The Winchester Star, April 28, 2010.

From the Author

I found out about the Battle of Fort Gregg when I researched and wrote my first book, Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment. Some of these Georgians had the misfortune of defending Ft. Gregg. I was astounded at what happened there and I was even more amazed that so few few people knew about the fort and the strategic significance of that "last stand." I grew up in Richmond and have been a student of the War my whole life and I had never heard of this battle until my 35th Georgia research. I discovered only a handful of magazine articles over the last 25 years had been written about the battle, so I decided to begin digging in the fall of 2005 to find out more. I uncovered reams of primary material much of it never before in print. These items filled 2 boxes and they weighed about 50 pounds. When I found this much stuff I realized I had quite a story to tell. I still find it remarkable that I am the first historian to write about this epic fight that was filled with so much drama. My prayer is that The Confederate Alamo does justice to the courage and sacrifice of the brave Union and Confederate soldiers who fought at Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 329 pages
• Publisher: Angle Valley Press; 1 edition (April 3, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0971195005
• ISBN-13: 978-0971195004
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #365,643 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John J. Fox, III is the author or editor of several books and articles about the Civil War. His newest book, "The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg's Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865," was recently released to commemorate the 145th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Gregg. Fox's first book, "Red Clay to Richmond: Trail of the 35th Georgia Infantry Regiment," won two book awards. He is a graduate of Washington & Lee University with a degree in U.S. History and he served for seven years in the U.S. Army. He lives in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars You MUST read this book!, August 21, 2010

By 

Theodore C. Mahr - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 (Hardcover)

Theodore C. Mahr, Dayton, OH: former National Park Service ranger / historian at Manassas and Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania National Military Parks. Author of: "Early's Valley Campaign: The Battle Go Cedar Creek: Showdown in the Shenandoah, October 1-30, 1864," 1992. (soon to be released in expanded, revised edition ).

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In the Fall of 1981, while coaching Track & Field at the University of Maryland, my wife and I took a drive south to see the Civil War sites in an around Richmond-Petersburg area. I had always been interested in the Civil War, and, though from Ohio originally, had focused my reading mostly upon the Eastern Theater of war. This was primarily a result of having numerous ancestors who had fought on both sides on the battlefields of Virginia and West Virginia.

I had spent much time already looking at the battlefields in the Shenandoah Valley, as that was where many of them had campaigned. Upon learning, however, that I had one great-grandfather, who had served with Sheridan's 2nd Cavalry Division ( and had been wounded near Petersburg ), I was determined to tour those battlefields south of the Confederate capital of Richmond. I wanted to see where he had been in action and to simply gain a better understanding of "what went on there" in that part of the war.

I found the spot near Burgess Mill, where my great-grandfather had been hit, but one place we visited on that gloomy, rainy and altogether eerie day on the National Park Service's standard Petersburg "tour," was a lone, squarish, earthen fort, now overgrown with brush and trees, sitting in the center of a large farm-field just off Interstate-85.

It was Fort Gregg, but few would know of it because it was not a "real" stop on the tour. Nor was it in anyway under "preservation" or being interpreted at that time. And, when I got back to Maryland, I couldn't find one decent account of it in the general book collection in the libraries at the university.

But, something very sublime had drawn my wife and I to stop the car on that rainy day and slog out through the mushy ground to see this curious tree-covered earthwork standing so silently and alone in the middle of this field.
e knew something had occurred here just by the location and feeling one experienced in that forlorn location.

Later on, after I retired from coaching, I actually began to work for the NPS as a park ranger / historian at Manassas and later Fredericksburg-Spotsylvania NMP's. In this role, I had opportunity in the very late 1980's to once again visit Fort Gregg. Now there was at least an "unofficial" NPS tour-stop number and brief description of a fight that had taken place there in the last days of the siege of Petersburg. But, the old grass-covered, dirt walls of this fort still lay as they had almost a decade earlier---completely isolated, covered in foliage,and still with no interpretation.

I had read-up more on what had occurred at Fort Gregg---what little there was to read---as I was now a NPS historian myself, yet there still was not much to explain in detail what had happened there. I only knew now that some "hard" fight had occurred at that location during Grant's efforts to finally punch through Lee's lines in the Spring of 1865.

Curiously, on this second trip, I again experienced that mysterious and foreboding feeling that this, for some reason, was indeed very "hallowed" ground.

Family and illness drew me away from Virginia for quite some years, and Fort Gregg's alluring presence vanished from my mind. That is until an advance notice of a new book release coming out in 2010 appeared on the Amazon.com website. It was a new book and was about the Battle at Fort Gregg called: "The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg's Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865," by John J. Fox III.

I had seen a copy of Mr. Fox's previous book, "Red Clay to Richmond..." at our library, and it had been so well researched and written that I just had to read his new book on Fort Gregg. Wow! What a story it turned out to be!

Now I knew why I had felt that something very important and very sublime had occurred there on my trips much earlier in time---because something had! Simply put, the Federal assault of Fort Gregg--and its defence--ranks as one of the top ten most exciting tales of the Civil War in my estimation, and one that has gone virtually untold, until now.

You simply have got to read this book!

Other reviewers in this section of the page take time describing the background enough, so I won't waste my few remaining words there. But it truly was one of the toughest and "nastiest" little "bloodbath" fights of the war---just as the title states. And it was an important one too. For had those 300-odd Mississippians and Georgians defending this part of Robert E. Lee's overstretched lines not given their all--to the very last man--in this "Alamo-like" defense, the Army of Northern Virginia may have come to an abrupt and not so suspenseful end, as it managed to do in the heart-braking chase to Appomattox.

It was a "bloodbath" for both assaulting Federals and the Confederates defending this tiny Gibraltar on that fateful day in April, 1865, and John Fox covers it so well, I doubt anyone will ever eclipse his efforts.

The book is first very well researched, deeply, into very difficult to find primary sources. ( I know, as I have had much experience of my own trying to research "late-war" campaigns--particularly the Shenandoah Valley Campaign of 1864 ). The materials are simply very hard to find for end-of-the-war battles. But John Fox has done his homework exceedingly well and has left no stone unturned to locate and ferret out a treasure trove of first person accounts and records, long forgotten and unused.

The result is a "boots-on-the-ground" minute-by-minute, "you are there" read that, not only keeps you from putting the book down, but which has your heart-rate increasing every chapter you cover. Rifle-butts, bayonets, rammers and fists, mounting the ramparts with bullet-torn flags flying--this actually occurred here in this stunning but all true tale of courage and sacrifice. The Ohio, West Virginia, and Connecticut troops who had to take this island of resistance to get through to block Lee's escape westward, paid dearly for every inch of that earthen impediment sitting out in the open but directly in their path to victory.

And most of these Ohio and West Virginia units had just come out of some very famous blood-lettings in the Shenandoah Valley at Third Winchester, Fisher's Hill, and Cedar Creek. Yet, many of them stated that this last great fight of their's was the roughest, meanest scrape of all.

The Confederates fought as tenaciously as any Rebels did during the entire war---anywhere, and, although ultimately conquered, they had done their duty well. Lee had gained just the barest amount of time by their Spartan-like defense to get his units, which were farther north and east, moving west in a hurry, just ahead of Grant's pursuit toward Appomattox.

In addition to the impeccable research and vivid prose, this book has been produced with top-notch quality in mind--something I personally feel is lacking in many Civil War studies of late. You get your money's worth, that's for sure.

Here are some of the clearest, most outstanding maps of a battle I have ever seen come off the pen of master cartographer George Skoch. You fellow buffs who "always" ( like me ) decry the too-often dearth of adequate maps in books? ... well you won't find that here. They are plentiful and great. And Fox goes to great lengths to, not only supplement the research, prose, and cartography with a plethora of illustrations, but also provides in-depth appendices of all statistics any Civil War nut would relish. If that isn't enough, the indexing, book production quality, and editing by the skillful Sylvia Frank Rodrigue are beyond well done--they are superb.

No one paid me to write this review, and it is actually a ways outside of my own Shenandoah Valley 1864 interests at that. But, I was so very impressed with the entire scope and quality of this book that I just had to let someone know that, if you miss this book, you will deeply regret it.

Wake Island has been called the "Alamo of the Pacific," and, no doubt, many look at the 101st Airborne Division's legendary defense at Bastogne as the "Alamo" of the European Theater. But this--Fort Gregg--was indeed a rue "Alamo" of the Civil War.

Go get this book--now! I'm telling you, in an age when there is so little truly new coming out on the Civil War, you will find a magnificent gem of altogether fresh material here. It's worth every penny!

Now, if John would only do for Fort Stedman what he has done for Fort Gregg, many of us would be pleased as could be!

Theodore C. Mahr
Dayton, OH

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent rendering of a bloody battle, September 11, 2010

By 

Steven A. Peterson (Hershey, PA (Born in Kewanee, IL)) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 (Hardcover)

A solidly researched and documented work on the bloody battle for Fort Gregg (and Fort Whitworth), as a part of the desperate end game struggle at Petersburg. Grant's forces had already begun to wreck the Confederate position with the crushing defeat by Sheridan and his forces over Pickett's troops at Five Forks. This is the tale of heroism on both sides, as savage fighting took place. The southern troops knew how important it was to hold their position; northern forces understood that a breakthrough would be one more step toward a real victory. A well told story. . . .

This book takes us step by step through the events of April 2, 1865. The author uses sources to establish who did what and when. We get stories of the heroism of individuals--both Confederate and Union. The maps that are included in the text give a good sense of the dynamics of the attacks by Union forces on the desperate defenders of the two forts.

We learn of the failures of command--and the successes. Some officers on both sides performed poorly, but others excelled. The details in this book add to its value.

All in all, a good analysis of a bloody battle. After the day's events, the Confederates had to retreat, leave the Petersburg area. In doing that, the fate of the Confederacy was largely sealed.

22 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg, April 26, 2010

By 

James W. Parrish (Tallahassee, FL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 (Hardcover)

John Fox has done an outstanding job of telling a compelling story of one of the fiercest, but generally overlooked, battles of the Civil War - the Battle of Fort Gregg. A few hundred rag tag Confederate defenders, surrounded and trapped by an overwhelming Union force during the Federal breakthrough at Petersburg on April 2, 1865, fight to the end and buy enough time with their blood to allow Robert E. Lee's ragged army to narrowly escape from the city. Fox does a masterful job of taking the reader up to the events that led to the battle and then weaving in personal accounts from soldiers on both sides during the struggle. Excellent maps and period photographs help the reader follow this fascinating account of uncommon courage. This is definitely a five star book for the library.