March 11, 1865
Skirmish at Goochland Court-House, VA, as Maj. Gen. Philip Henry Sheridan, USA, threatens Richmond, VA.
Secretary of War Edwin Stanton replies to Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant stating that Brevet Brigadier General Thomas M. Harris, commanding the Independent Division, 24th Corps, Army of the James, but soon to be mustered out with his regiment as a colonel, cannot be promoted to full brigadier general because there are no vacancies currently.
Ulysses S. Grant is visited by his patron Congressman Elihu Washburne and presented with a medal, as so hilariously described by Meade ADC Theodore Lyman.
Brevet Brigadier General Robert M. West temporarily assumes command of the sole cavalry division in the Army of the James while Brevet Major General August V. Kautz is away.
General James Longstreet asks General George E. Pickett, then at High Bridge near Farmville, what he has heard and seen of Sheridan’s Union cavalry command.
General James Longstreet orders General Martin Gary to keep a sharp lookout for Sheridan’s Union cavalry, then reported to be ten to twenty miles from Richmond.
Note: All “Today In The Petersburg Campaign” blog entries are used with permission from Ronald A. Mosocco’s Chronological Tracking of the American Civil War per the Official Records of the War of the Rebellion. Order the book HERE.
Copyright © 1993, 1994 by Ronald A. Mosocco
Mentions of This Date at The Siege of Petersburg Online:
- LT: March 11, 1865 Samuel K. Miller
- LT: March 11, 1865 Theodore Lyman
- LT: March 11, 1865 Willis J. Watts
- OR XLVI P1 #4: Itineraries of the Army of the Potomac, Sheridan’s Cavalry Command, and the Army of the James, January-April 1865
- OR XLVI P1 #7: Report of Bvt. Lieutenant Col Nathaniel Michler, Acting Chief Engineer, AotP, March 11-18, 1865
- OR XLVI P1 #176: Reports of Bvt. Major Peter S. Michie, Chief Engineer, Army of the James, Feb 4-Mar 18, 1865