Fair Oaks
Darbytown Road ,Second Fair Oaks
Civil War in Virginia

American Civil War
October 27-28, 1864

In combination with movements against the Boydton Plank Road at Petersburg, Major General Benjamin Butler attacked the Richmond defenses along Darbytown Road with the X Corps.

The XVIII Corps marched north to Fair Oaks where it was soundly repulsed by Field's Confederate division.

Confederate forces counterattacked, taking some 600 prisoners.

The Richmond defenses remained intact. Of Grant's offensives north of the James River, this was repulsed most easily.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Henrico 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 Benjamin Butler [US]; Lieutenant General James Longstreet [CS]

Forces Engaged: Corps

Estimated Casualties: 1,750 total


From Manassas to Appomattox: General James Longstreet
According to some, he was partially to blame for the Confederate defeat at Gettysburg; according to others, if Lee had followed Longstreet's advice, they would have won that battle. He has been called stubborn and vain; and he has been lauded as one of the greatest tacticians of the Civil War

72 Piece Civil War Army Men
Play Set 52mm Union and Confederate Figures, Bridge, Horses, Canon
  • 48 Union and Confederate Soldiers up to 2-1/8 inches tall
  • 4 Horses, 4 Sandbag Bunkers, 6 Fence Sections, 3 Cannon, 3 Limber Wagons (Ammo Carts)
  • Bridge, Small Barracks,
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Besides his weapons, the soldier needed a leather belt with a cap box for the percussion caps that fired his weapon, a box for his cartridges, a sling/scabbard for his bayonet, a haversack and/or knapsack to carry his rations and his few personal items
American Civil War Book Titles

Glory Enough for All: Sheridan's Second Raid and the Battle of Trevilian Station
After the ferocious fighting at Cold Harbor Grant ordered his cavalry to distract the Confederate forces. Tthe battle that resulted when Confederate cavalry pursued and caught their Federal foes at Trevilian Station, Virginia, perhaps the only truly decisive cavalry battle of the American Civil War.
Lee's Last Retreat: The Flight to Appomattox
Lee's troops were more numerous and far less faithful to their cause than has been suggested. Lee himself made mistakes in this campaign, and defeat wrung from him an unusual display of faultfinding
One Continuous Fight: The Retreat from Gettysburg and the Pursuit of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia
The first detailed military history of Lee's retreat and the Union effort to catch and destroy the wounded Army of Northern Virginia Complimented with 18 original maps, dozens of photos, and a complete driving tour with GPS coordinates of the entire retreat
Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864
This chronicles the great 1864 Overland Campaign, forty days that marked the end of the Civil War. In detail the battles in Virginia's Wilderness to the combat at Spotsylvania the trap laid by Lee at the North Anna River, to the killing ground of Cold Harbor

The Wilderness Campaign
Military Campaigns of the Civil War
In 1864, in the vast Virginia scrub forest known as the Wilderness, Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee first met in battle. The Wilderness campaign of May 5-6 initiated an epic confrontation between these two Civil War commanders
Victory Without Triumph
The Wilderness, May 6th & 7th, 1864

Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the Overland Campaign
Narrative history of military operations in the Overland Campaign of May and June, 1864: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor. Describes Union and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this new era of field entrenchments.
In the Footsteps of Grant and Lee: The Wilderness Through Cold Harbor
For forty days, the armies fought a grinding campaign from the Rapidan River to the James River that helped decide the course of the Civil War. Several of the war's bloodiest engagements occurred in this brief period: the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, the North Anna River, Totopotomoy Creek, Bethesda Church, and Cold Harbor

The Last Citadel: Petersburg, Virginia, June 1864-April 1865
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. 		 
Swallowed Up in Victory: A Civil War Narrative, Petersburg, 1864-1865
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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Sources:
U.S. National Park Service
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