Meeting of Thursday, March 12, 2026, 7:15 PM ET ZOOM ONLY
Free and open to the public. Zoom. Please email oldbaldycwrt@verizon.net at least 24 hrs prior to request Zoom access.
Title of the presentation: Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18–July 1, 1864
Grant wasted no time after his Petersburg assaults of June 15-18, 1864, failed to capture the city. He launched his second offensive against Petersburg hours later. Among other things, he sent his cavalry on a raid to cut the Confederate railroads south of Petersburg. This would slow any reinforcements sent from the south and west to the enemy at Petersburg and Richmond. Grant also hoped that in case his infantry failed in its mission a lack of provisions would force the foe to abandon those cities. But at Petersburg Grant faced Lee and not Floyd as at Fort Donelson in 1862 or Pemberton as at Vicksburg in 1863. Lee, his cavalry commander Hampton, and Mahone smashed Grant’s cavalry raiders at the battles of Sappony Church and First Reams Station
A native of Chicago, John Horn has practiced law there since 1976. He has written four books and co-edited another about the siege of Petersburg and that city’s soldiers. (His wife, who is also his law partner, descends from several of Petersburg’s defenders.) His most recent book is Lee Besieged: Grant’s Second Petersburg Offensive, June 18-July 1, 1864 (Savas Beatie, 2025), which is receiving good reviews. Another one of his books, The Petersburg Regiment in the Civil War: A History of the 12th Virginia Infantry from John Brown’s Hanging to Appomattox, 1859-1865 (Savas Beatie), won the 2019 Army Historical Foundation Distinguished Writing Award for Unit History. He has published articles in Civil War Times Illustrated, America’s Civil War, Gettysburg Magazine, North & South Magazine, and Emerging Civil War. He blogs at johnhorncivilwarauthor.blogspot.com.
To purchase John’s book, see below links.
https://www.savasbeatie.com/lee-besieged-grant-s-second-petersburg-offensive-june-18-july-1-1864/