Boydton Plank
Hatcher's Run, Burgess' Mill
Civil War in Virginia

American Civil War
October 27-28, 1864

Directed by Major General Winfield Scott Hancock, divisions from three Union corps (II, V, and IX) and Gregg's cavalry division, numbering more than 30,000 men, withdrew from the Petersburg lines and marched west to operate against the Boydton Plank Road and South Side Railroad.

The initial Union advance on October 27 gained the Boydton Plank Road, a major campaign objective. But that afternoon, a counterattack near Burgess' Mill spearheaded by Major General Henry Heth's division and Major General Wade Hampton's cavalry isolated the II Corps and forced a retreat.

The Confederates retained control of the Boydton Plank Road for the rest of the winter.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Dinwiddie County

Campaign: Richmond Petersburg Campaign (June 1864-March 1865) next battle in campaign previous battle in campaign

Date(s): October 27-28, 1864

Principal Commanders: Major General Winfield Scott Hancock [US]; Major General Henry Heth [CS]

Forces Engaged: Corps  (35,000 total)

Estimated Casualties: 3,058 total (1,758 US; 1,300 CS)


The Author 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. Written with a meticulous attention to its historical background and context, Lee Passarella's Swallowed Up In Victory: A Civil War Narrative Petersburg, 1864-1865 is an engrossing novel of the final year of the American Civil War, centering on the bloody attacks waged on Petersburg through the surrender at Appomattox. The letters and journal entries of a group of fictitious people swept up by the turmoil of war make for a unique story that feels as real and vivid as if the writings had been rescued from forgotten family records. A compelling Civil War story, Swallowed Up In Victory is enthusiastically recommended for historical fiction readers in general, and Civil War history buffs in particular.


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