Product Description

No other battle, no other campaign of the Civil War, equaled 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." Drawing upon letters, diaries, and reminiscences from both sides, The Last Citadel re-creates this siege between Grant and Lee and their armies. 20 line drawings and 20 maps.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #731303 in Books
• Published on: 1993-04
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 514 pages

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.

From Kirkus Reviews
A finely detailed resumption of the harrowing story of Grant's relentless drive south that brought Union armies to Cold Harbor, Virginia--a campaign whose initial stages were described so well in Trudeau's Bloody Roads South (1989). Here, Trudeau covers the 11-month siege and capture of Petersburg, the gracious southern town that was a rail center, major rebel supply depot, and lifeline to Richmond, capital of the Confederacy. He shows us the great commanders matching wits in a long bloody duel: Grant, the cool, calculating master of logistics, waging a war of attrition against the wily, charismatic Lee, whose outnumbered Army of Northern Virginia usually emerged victorious through brilliant tactics. Trudeau includes a description of the bizarre Battle of the Crater, in which Pennsylvania miners dug a 500-foot tunnel packed with powder under Southern defenses, causing a great explosion and resulting in a fierce battle between major forces. Petersburg was the largest military action ever waged against an American city, greater than the more publicized sieges of Southern citadels like Richmond, Atlanta, and Vicksburg. As usual, Trudeau has done exhaustive research of great sprawling events that at times may overwhelm a general reader. He not only cites formal historical accounts, unit histories, and field reports of officers but adds a needed human dimension, expounding on what war means to soldiers and civilians by consulting diaries, letters, memoirs, and eyewitness reports that bring home the horror and terror of combat. Perhaps the definitive one-volume account of the siege of Petersburg--a great achievement in mastering and interpreting vast material. (Maps and drawings.) -- Copyright ©1991, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Customer Reviews

The Siege of Petersburg
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.

Comprehensive, but not Perfect
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.

"If it becomes a siege, it's just a matter of time..."
"I have ordered a general assault along the lines". With these words, Ulysses Grant initiated the attack that ended the siege at Petersburg in April of 1864 and set in motion the slow retreat of the Confederacy that ultimately ended with their surrender at Appomattox Court House. Noted Civil War historian Noah Trudeau covers this episode of the war comprehensively with "The Last Citadel". Using many first-person accounts and scholarship long ignored by historians, Trudeau has crafted an intriguing look at this often overlooked portion of the war and presents a nice bridge between the much analyzed battle at Cold Harbor and the equally scrutinized Confederate surrender at Appomattox.

Trudeau's strength in this work is his compelling descriptions of the military actions and tactics as the Union forces steal a march on Confederate general R.E. Lee, leaving the front at Cold Harbor and nearly taking Petersburg before Lee can mount a counter-offensive. Only the hesitancy of Union general Baldy Smith (undoubtedly leary from his defeat at Cold Harbor) at exploiting a major opportunity with the Confederate works lightly manned, prevents Petersburg from falling and potentially ending the war many months early. Confederate general P.G.T. Beauregard manages this small force effectively and is able to interdict this minor Union offensive until Lee can get his forces to Petersburg.

Probing Union forces then learn that Lee is fronting Petersburg in force and Grant now must decide to attack in full force or settle in for a siege. Trudeau makes an effective argument for Grant's rationale for siege warfare, documenting the many lessons learned from the Federal defeats at Cold Harbor. Once Grant's troops are entrenched, Trudeau covers the many engagements that ensue as Grant encircles the city. Battles south of town along the Weldon Railroad (a major Confederate supply line that Grant is successful at blocking) and the more well-known encounters at the "Crater" and Fort Stedman are balanced with the many smaller skirmishes north of the city, mainly at Deep Bottom and Bermuda Hundred. Trudeau is effective at showing how this slow strangle-hold of the town ultimately drives the Confederate leadership to abandon both Petersburg and the capital at Richmond, essentially sealing the fate of the rebellion.

Although, as mentioned above, Trudeau uses many diary/journal accounts of this period, he fails in my view to really give the feeling of siege warfare, however. It seems that we go from one battle description to the next, and although he devotes some space to discussing the civilian life and actions in town, this period of the war covered 10 months and I never got the true sense of anxiety and frustration that most assuredly they all felt. Another criticism (a fairly normal one coming from readers of military tactics) is the lack of maps. Trudeau includes a confusing set of maps at the beginning of each chapter and the the reader is expected to refer to these throughout the text. I sometimes had to backtrack 40-50 pages to refer to a map and this not only added undue time, but also detracted from the reading quality as well. Trudeau obviously learned this lesson well as his most recent work (this book was written in 1991) on the battle at Gettysburg was annoted with many timely and useful maps. Finally, the seminal battle at Five Forks is curiously given short shrift here. This Union victory was the key ingredient that Grant needed to complete his encirclement of the city and was a major contributor to the Confederate decision to retreat. Also, the actions of Federal generals Philip Sheridan and Gouvenour Warren at Five Forks had far reaching implications for the rest of the war and should have been included. These criticisms are fairly minor however and should not make one hesitate to read this book.

A fast paced and militarily strong account of this little covered portion of the Civil War, Noah Trudeau adds to his already growing reputation as a leading modern Civil War historian with this work. Civil War buffs wil love it and the general reader will certainly get something from it if they are willing to invest the time. Overall I enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly.