Virginia Historical Society Podcast

On April 1 at noon, John J. Fox III, delivered a Banner Lecture entitled "Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg’s Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865." Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg’s Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865General Robert E. Lee faced the most monumental crisis of his military career on 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? Against overwhelming odds, a handful of Confederates made a suicidal desperate last stand at Fort Gregg. 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