The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865 [Paperback]

Noah Andre Trudeau (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1993

Perhaps no other battle or campaign of the American Civil War equalled the siege of Petersburg, Virginia. For 292 days, the war's final drama was played out over the fate of this once gracious Southern town, "the last bulwark of the Confederacy". The book covers the 11-month siege of Petersburg.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Often slighted by historians, the nine-month Petersburg, Va., campaign at the close of the Civil War receives expert examination in the detailed study. Photos.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Where Richard Sommers ( Richmond Redeemed , LJ 3/15/81) gave us four days of battle, Trudeau canvases the whole 292-day campaign for Petersburg and Richmond. Trudeau salts his narrative with healthy doses of official testimony and soldiers' personal accounts to create a brisk documentary flavor of campfire and war council. In minute detail he covers every clod of Virginia soil trod by Grant and Lee in the final days of the war. His telling of the horrors of the Crater and his vignettes of officers are compelling, but overall Trudeau fails to show how Petersburg was "the South's Gethsemane." The author writes about battles more than the Southern soul or the politics of war. Still, he dashes several myths about Petersburg--that Lee's army was starved and hopelessly outnumbered--and provides one of the most arresting narratives of any Civil War campaign. This is the stuff of high drama.
- Randall M. Miller, St. Joseph's Univ., Philadelphia
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 514 pages
• Publisher: Louisiana State University Press (April 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807118613
• ISBN-13: 978-0807118610
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #734,466 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Siege of Petersburg, July 12, 2003

By 

Robin Friedman (Washington, D.C. United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865 (Paperback)

I was moved to read this book by a recent visit to the Petersburg National Battlefield in Virginia. I spent the better part of a weekend touring various parts of the Battlefield with Park Rangers, but I still came away confused. The siege lines are lengthy and the key locations of the battle are separated and distant from each other. (I got lost several times driving.)

For some battlefields I have seen, such as Gettysburg, Antietam, Shiloh, or Vicksburg, a vist can illuminate and can be more informative than a casual reading of several books. For Petersburg, the reverse is true. I think this is due to the length of the siege (from June 1864-April 1865), to the complexity of the military operations, and to the interrelationship of the Petersburg siege with activites elswhere, particularly Sheridan's raids in the Shenendoah Valley and Sherman's taking of Atlanta and March to the sea. I found I needed to hold these events in mind in understanding the siege, rather than simply view the battlefield. Trudeau's book, which I found during my visit to Petersburg, helped me to do this.

Noah Andre Trudeau's "The Last Citadel" explains the Petersburg Siege and places it in its context in ending the Civil War. Perhaps most importantly for me, he explains how the decisive event of the siege occurred before it even began: Grant's brilliant move following the Union disaster at Cold Harbor, in which he stole a march on General Lee, crossed the James River, (a risky and audacious move) and attacked Petersburg from the South. Lee had forseen this move. He told Confederate General Jubal Early at Cold Harbor that: "we must destroy this army of Grant's before he gets to the James River. If he gets there it will become a siege, and then it will be a mere question of time." These were prophetic words but Lee was unable to react quickly enough when Grant moved his army from its trenches at Cold Harbor and crossed the James River.

The object of the siege was to capture the City of Petersburg and then move on the Confederate capitol of Richmond from the South. The siege itself was combined, as Trudeau shows, with operations directly on Richmond, staged from an area slightly north of Petersburg called the Bermuda Hundred. When Petersburg fell at last, the Union moved immediately into Richmond. General Lee surrendered at Appatomatox only one week later.

Trudeau's book is divided into four large Parts, together with a Prologue and an Epilogue. The book covers the early days of the siege (Petersburg probably could have been taken immediately after Grant crossed the James River with more aggressive efforts from the Union commanders), the famous incident of the Crater, operations against the southern railroads providing supplies to Petersburg, southern attempts to break the siege, the long, weary winter of the siege, and much else. Each part of the book begins with a short quotation from General Grant's "Final Report of Operations, March 1864 -- May, 1865". The four parts are each divided into short chapters which are, in turn, subdivided by short bold-faced headings each highlighting a critical moment or event. Thus the scene shifts rapidly from the Union lines to those of the South, from General Grant's deliberations to those of General Lee, from the battles to the trenches. It is, on the whole, an effective means of presenting the story. It held my attention and helped me understand the sometimes confusing sequences of events.

There are excellent discussions of the famous Battle of the Crater and of General Lee's numerous attempts to take the initiative and break the siege. I found the best and most poignant writing in Part IV of the book which details the breaking of the Confederate lines in April, 1865. Trudeau explains how Lee's lines were simply stretched too thin and how Grant after laboring to create this situation, was able to exploit it with an all-out assault. There is a good treatment of the battle of Five Forks, which led to the break -- this discussion occurs at the end of the chapter rather than at the beginning. I viewed and heard a discussion of the Five Forks site during my visit to Petersburg -- Five Forks is some distance from most of the rest of the Battlefield -- But I didn't really understand the significance of the site until I read Trudeau's book.

There are eloquent accounts of the evacuation of Petersburg and of visits during the siege by President Lincoln. Trudeau's Epilogue is thoughtful and a good summation of the book and the siege.

The maps in the book were helpful. And I particularly enjoyed the many drawings and illustrations in the book. These illustrations were made contemporaneously with the events they describe and have not often been reproduced.

This book is a good account of a critical but sometimes underestimated battle in our country's Civil War.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Treatment of the Petersburg Campaign, September 6, 2005

By 

Wayne A. Smith (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865 (Paperback)

Many Civil War histories cover the Petersburg Campaign in a fell swoop of attrition warfare, privation among the defenders and inhabitants of Petersburg and Grant's slow and methodical picking of Lee's lock hold on this strategic Southern transportation hub. Trudeau gives description to the very many major battles that encompassed Grant's attempts to first break through Lee's stout defensive lines then string the Confederates thinly by forcing them to extend to their right to cover remaining rail lines.

This is an excellent book which covers the strategy, battles, siege warfare, life in the trenches and civilian existence during the 290 plus day siege (the longest siege of any American city). Anyone familiar with Trudeau's more recent Gettysburg, will appreciate the author's enlivenment of the big picture with contemporary observations by participants of all ranks. Many fascinating details of the siege emerge in this telling such as the City Point sabotage, the Great Beef Raid, as well as the more familiar Grant's stolen march across the James, Battle of the Crater, and breakthrough following Five Forks.

The only curiosity is that the author did not treat Five Forks and Dinwiddie Courthouse in detail, treating them as out-of-theater events like the capture of Atlanta and Thomas' victories over Hood. My only guess is that as they were fought under Sheridan -- recently from the Shenandoah - the author considered these not part and parcel of the Petersburg Campaign. I think the historical record differs from that assumption, but it does not take away from an altogether fine book.

I do agree with some of the quibbles about lack of detail on some of the maps. While not true for every beginning of chapter map, there were a few which did not contain enough detail to allow them to be easily followed. On the other hand, he does have maps for every major engagement plus a good overall map showing all of the fortifications along each side's lines.

Any Civil War enthusiast looking for a very good treatment of the Siege of Petersburg will be well satisfied with this book.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, but not Perfect, August 16, 2004

By 

Jonathan Gianos-Steinberg (Milwaukee, WI) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865 (Paperback)

There are a lot of good things about Trudeau's book. It's meticulous, easy to read, interesting, and most importantly, it encompasses the entire siege campaign.

Trudeau's sequel to Bloody Roads South has the same strengths as the first book. With that said, it has the same problems:

#1 - The maps are pitiful. Like the prequel, this book's maps are few and far between, and the maps themselves are cluttered. The battle actions are zoomed in from an overall map via arrows, and there is no legend giving any idea of distance between lines.

#2 - There are no footnotes or endnotes, so the reader can't be sure just what resource is being used for what information. At the end of the book, Trudeau lists some of the sources he used in each chapter, but for students of the war who are used to books with 100+ notes per chapter, this style is disconcerting.

#3 - Maybe it's just an effort to be objective, but there is almost no editorial commentary offered by the author himself. Trudeau simply takes the sources and quotes them or reports what happened, without interjecting any of his own commentary on who was to blame, what went critically wrong or right, or anything like that.

Despite those gripes, the book is certainly well worth the read. The highlight of the book is probably the chapter about the Battle of the Crater. Throughout the book, Trudeau does a good job of splicing together official record reports with the subsequent action, but it works remarkably well in this chapter, as he goes back and forth between the action and the Joint Committee testimony on what happened.

All in all, he does a good job of presenting both armies' viewpoints and mindsets, as well as that of the townspeople. I'm not sure why he didn't cover the action at Five Forks between Pickett and Sheridan/Warren, but everything else was covered well.