Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s Original Battle and Casualty Report for Action Around Petersburg, Addressed to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton

The Confederates, Grant updates Stanton, “were leaving a part of their dead for us to bury, our losses were three officers & eighteen men killed, eleven Officers & ninety-two men wounded and twenty-two men missing.”

Grant writes: “In front of one Brigade of Mott’s Div. he buried thirty-one of the enemy and counted twenty two graves besides some of which were large enough for five or six bodies each. Gen. Smythe estimates the loss of the enemy in his front at two hundred. Our captures for the day were about one hundred men, half of them taken by the Cavalry and the rest by the 5th & 2d Corps. This afternoon the 5th Corps advanced and drove the enemy back on to this Artillery, probably into his entrenchments, beyond Dabney’s Mill. The casualties for to-day I will report as soon as learned.”

Unique in our experience, this being the only battle and casualty report from Grant we have ever seen.

By February 1865, the stalemate around Petersburg had entered its eighth month. Lieut. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant planned a Union offensive to deprive the Confederates of supplies, and also hasten the fall of Petersburg. The Union objective was to send Brig. Gen. David McM. Gregg’s cavalry out to the Boydton Plank Road to destroy all the Confederate supply wagons they could find, while the V Corps and II Corps provided support and kept the Confederates occupied to the north and east. Pursuant to plan, Union forces began to stretch their battle lines to the west in an attempt to get Gen. Robert E. Lee’s under-strength army to do the same.

On February 5th, Union Brig. Gen. David Gregg’s cavalry division rode out to the Boydton Plank Road via Reams Station and Dinwiddie Court House in an attempt to intercept Confederate supply trains. Maj. Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren with the Fifth Corps crossed Hatcher’s Run and took up a blocking position on the Vaughan Road to prevent interference with Gregg’s operations. Two divisions of the Second Corps under Maj. Gen. Andrew A. Humphreys shifted west to near Armstrong’s Mill to cover Warren’s right flank. Late in the day, Confederate Maj. Gen. John B. Gordon attempted to turn Humphreys’ right flank near the mill but was repulsed. During the night, the Federals were reinforced by two divisions.

On February 6th, Gregg returned to Gravelly Run on the Vaughan Road from his unsuccessful raid and was attacked by elements of Brig. Gen. John Pegram’s Confederate division. Warren pushed forward a reconnaissance in the vicinity of Dabney’s Mill and was attacked by Pegram’s and Maj. Gen. William Mahone’s divisions. Pegram was killed in the action. Although the Union advance was stopped, the Federals extended their siege works to the Vaughan Road crossing of Hatcher’s Run. On February 7, Warren launched an offensive and drove back the Confederates, recapturing most of the Union lines around Dabney’s Mill that had been lost the day before. Thus, the Confederates kept the Boydton Plank Road open, but suffered attrition and were forced to further extend their thinning lines.

Autograph letter signed “U. S. Grant, Lt. Gen.,” two pages, Head Quarters Armies of the United States letterhead, City Point, Virginia, February 6, 1865, amidst the battle, to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, about the first day’s fighting and plans of the next day: “In the affair of yesterday when the enemy attacked a port of the 2d Corps and were handsomely repulsed, leaving a part of their dead for us to bury, our losses were three officers & eighteen men killed, eleven Officers & ninety-two men wounded and twenty-two men missing. In front of one Brigade of Mott’s Div. he buried thirty-one of the enemy and counted twenty two graves besides some of which were large enough for five or six bodies each. Gen. Smythe estimates the loss of the enemy in his front at two hundred. Our captures for the day were about one hundred men, half of them taken by the Cavalry and the rest by the 5th & 2d Corps. This afternoon the 5th Corps advanced and drove the enemy [Grant strikes through “inside this intrenchment”] back on to this Artillery, probably into this entrenchments, beyond Dabney’s Mill. Here the enemy was reinforced and drove Warren back. Our troops are still out and will not be returned to their old position unless driven to it by the difficulty of supplying them. The casualties for to-day I will report as soon as learned.”

This is a true piece of history – the original report on the Battle of Hatcher’s Run, completely in the hand of Grant, as sent to Stanton. And considering the amount of time Lincoln spent at Stanton’s office, quite likely he would have seen or learned details of the report. It’s the only the battle and casualty report from Grant we have ever seen on the market.