Diary of John Beauchamp Jones: August 23, 1863

Dispatches from Charleston, yesterday, brought the melancholy intelligence that Fort Sumter is but little more than a pile of rubbish. The fall of this fort caused my wife a hearty cry — and she cried when Beauregard reduced it in 1861: not because he did it, but because it was the initiation of a terrible war. She hoped that the separation would be permitted to pass without bloodshed.

To-day we have a dispatch from Beauregard, stating the extraordinary fact that the enemy's batteries, since the demolition of Sumter, have thrown shell, from their Parrott guns, into the city — a distance of five and a half miles! This decides the fate of Charleston; for they are making regular approaches to batteries Wagner and Gregg, which, of course, will fall. The other batteries Beauregard provided to render the upper end of the island untenable, cannot withstand, I fear, the enginery of the enemy.

If the government had sent the long-range guns of large caliber when so urgently called for by Beauregard, and if it had not sent away the best troops against the remonstrances of Beauregard, the people are saying, no lodgment could have been made on Morris Island by the enemy, and Sumter and Charleston would have been saved for at least another year.

At all events, it is quite probable, now, that all the forts and cities on the seaboard (Mobile, Savannah, Wilmington, Richmond) must succumb to the mighty engines of the enemy; and our gunboats, built and in process of completion, will be lost. Richmond, it is apprehended, must fall when the enemy again approaches within four or five miles of it; and Wilmington can be taken from the rear, as well as by water, for no forts can withstand the Parrott guns.

Then there will be an end of blockade-running; and we must flee to the mountains, and such interior fastnesses as will be impracticable for the use of these long-range guns. Man must confront man in the deadly conflict, and the war can be protracted until the government of the North passes out of the hands of the Abolitionists. We shall suffer immensely; but in the end we shall be free.

SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 2, p. 22-3

Review: The Confederate Alamo

The Confederate Alamo:

Bloodbath at Petersburg’s Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865

By John Fox

One of the unfortunate realities of the closing days of the Civil War is the fact that so many events happened in such a short period of time that many of the smaller events are overshadowed by the much larger events of Robert E. Lee’s surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia to Ulysses S. Grant, and the assassination of Abraham Lincoln.  One such event was the fighting that took place at Fort Gregg after the Federal Army pierced the Confederate line of defenses to the southwest of Petersburg, Virginia on April 2, 1865, ending a ten month siege and leading to the immediate evacuations of Petersburg and Richmond Virginia.

Author John J. Fox III has written the first ever book length account of the chaotic and bloody battle at Fort Gregg, which would later become known as “The Confederate Alamo,” where, like its namesake, 334 Confederate troops unsuccessfully defended the fort against an assault by 4,500 Federal soldiers. 

Mr. Fox’s narrative of the struggle over Fort Gregg is well written, and is easily read.  Thoroughly researched, Mr. Fox’s tome is an impressive scholarly achievement.  It is a well balanced presentation of the struggle, both inside and outside the fort, giving both the Confederate and Union points of view.  In its nearly minute by minute, chronological accounting of the events of battle that raged for nearly two hours, never does the weight of Mr. Fox’s narrative tilt the scale to either side.

The most impressive part of Mr. Fox’s book, however, is not the narrative of the battle but rather the book’s appendices, and the obviously staggering amount of research that had to have been done to create them.  The centerpiece of which is the roster of the 334 defenders of the fort.  Other appendices cover the Order of Battle, Fort Gregg casualties, Fort Whitworth’s Controversial Artillery Withdrawal, Which Southern Artillery Batteries Helped Defend Fort Gregg, Fort Gregg Medal of Honor Recipients, and the First Union Flag on Fort Gregg Controversy.

To those interested in the Civil War, especially in its waning days, Mr. Fox’s “The Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburg’s Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865” is a must have.

ISBN 978-0971195004, Angle Valley Press, © 2010, Hardcover, 329 pages, Photographs, Maps, Appendices, Endnotes, Bibliography & Index. $34.95