On February 8, 1863 the first brigade of the Union’s IX Corps arrived in Newport News, Virginia. With Lee’s army camped south of the Rappahannock River in Fredericksburg the Davis administration was anxious about the safety of Richmond and Petersburg. In response Lee sent Major General George Pickett and his division to Richmond. Despite Lee’s assurances Jefferson Davis remained concerned and Hood’s division was ordered to join Pickett south of the James River the following day. On February 18th Lee ordered Lieutenant General James Longstreet there as well to assume command of his two divisions. Lee created the independent Department of Virginia and North Carolina with Longstreet as its commander as of February 26th. Its reach would include southeastern Virginia from Richmond to the coast and all of North Carolina. The department was divided into three parts: the Department of North Carolina under Major General D.H. Hill; the Department of Richmond commanded by Major General Arnold Elsey; and Major General Samuel French would head the Department of Southern Virginia. It would be tasked with: the protection of Richmond from the south and southeast; the gathering of supplies for itself and the Army of Northern Virginia; and if practicable the capture of the Union garrison in Suffolk. Longstreet would also need to position himself in such a way as to be available to Lee should Hooker decide to move from his winter camps in Falmouth and Stafford. Lee knew that there was a vast amount of food stores and supplies in the area of Longstreet’s new department and he would need them for a plan that he discussed with Davis in a telegram on April 16th, a second invasion of the North.
Lee became concerned about his own position when Federal Cavalry crossed the Rappahannock River on March 17th resulting in the Battle of Kelly’s Ford. He ordered Pickett and Hood’s divisions to rejoin him and the following day Hood moved to Ashland. Lee cancelled the alarm on the 19th when the Union Cavalry returned back to its camps and Hood and his men returned to Richmond. Confederate Brigadier General Micah Jenkins assumed command of the Blackwater region in early March. He fortified his lines and aggressively scouted the “no man’s land”. During this time Burnside’s IX Corps left Newport News. General Peck in Suffolk was receiving reports of Rebel reinforcements across the Blackwater from deserters of Hood’s and Pickett’s divisions. General Dix overall Union commander of the region sent Brigadier General George Getty’s division from Newport News to Suffolk in response.
On April 8th Longstreet left Petersburg for Franklin to command the coming offensive against Suffolk. Longstreet ordered Jenkins to cross the Blackwater River on the 10th with four days rations and entrenching tools. They would act as a screen for Hood and Pickett’s divisions who were to follow the next day. The cavalry was to cross at the Blackwater Bridge near Zuni and move on the left flank via Windsor. On April 10th General John Peck received reports at his headquarters at Riddick’s Folly, of five bridges being built across the Blackwater River. Over the past six months his 9,000 men had build a 10-mile chain of earthwork defenses that encircled the town. They consisted of at least a dozen forts connected by rifle trenches. By the 10th only Forts Halleck and Jericho on the east side of town remained unfinished. The woods outside the line had been cleared of trees to create fields of fire. He also had set up an extensive network of signal stations with the central station atop the Masonic Hall on Main Street extending out in multiple directions.
At 3:30 PM on the 11th Lieutenant Amos Thayer was sitting at his treetop signal station near where the modern-day Suffolk Golf Course is on Holland Road (the Civil War South Quay Road). The pictures below were taken at 36.7298331, -76.6135167.
Cavalry pickets were about 1,200 yards further west along the road. An escaped slave was hurrying toward the signal tree stating that the Confederates were advancing and only a few miles away. Thayer immediately relayed the information to Suffolk- “Pickets driven in, reinforcements needed.” The pickets and cavalry withdrew quickly back to town burning homes as they went and General Peck ordered the drawbridge over the Nansemond River from the north destroyed.
The wartime drawbridge over the Nansemond River sat at the site of the modern-day bridge on North Main Street.
A cavalry picket at the Providence Church wasn’t notified of the advancing Confederates and fled on their approach only to find the drawbridge destroyed, forcing them to swim their mounts across the river.
That first day Peck removed his forces from the eastern shore of the Nansemond River in order to complete the work on Forts Halleck and Jericho on the east side of town. Three regiments of the 13th NH, two miles out of town at Fort Connecticut, were the last to leave pulling up the corduroy bridge over Broer’s Creek leaving the east side of the river completely undefended. General Getty was ordered to destroy the Seaboard and Roanoke Bridge over the Jericho Canal. Peck was depending on the Navy to hold the river. This was a risky decision and one that General Getty disagreed with. There was no immediate threat from the east and in his view the more pressing issue was a potential river crossing. The USS Smith Briggs and West End were near the drawbridge. The USS Stepping Stones and Alert were also on the river. General Peck was injured when his horse fell and rode from point to point in a carriage. Confederates attacking from the west and north were commanded by General John Bell Hood who would come up the South Quay Road (the Holland Road). General George Pickett would come up from the south on the Somerton Road. Federal artillery held them at bay until nightfall when both sides began working quickly on putting up earthworks shown in the map below. The Confederate Line extended half way around Suffolk from Hills Point to the north, to the west where Kenyon Road crosses Holland Road, southwest to where Turlington Road crossed the Carolina Road (Civil War Somerton Road), and south to where Badger Road crosses White Marsh Road (Civil War Edenton Road) at the edge of the Dismal Swamp. The Confederates had the town cut off from the north, west and south, however, access was never shut off from the east. Despite this the activity between April 11th and May 3rd would come to be called the “Siege of Suffolk” even though it was never a true siege.
On the morning of the 12th Admiral Lee sent the Mount Washington under Lieutenant Roswell Lamson to the lower Nansemond and the Commodore Barney under Lieutenant William Barksdale Cushing to the upper Nansemond. Longstreet probed for a weakness in the Union lines on the 12th. Early on the morning of the 13th an unfortunate incident occurred between two Union officers when General Corcoran shot and killed Lieutenant Colonel Edgar Kimball over a dispute over a countersign.
George Robinson Smith’s house was three quarters of a mile south of Union lines on the Somerton Road. Around 10:00 AM on the 13th Confederates moved past his home heading toward Federal lines at the same time as Union soldiers were headed south on the Somerton Road. Heavy skirmishing broke out on the Smith property. The family (Mr. Smith, his wife Judith and their seven children) were huddled in the cellar of their home when shells began to tear through the house. As the family ran for the woods Judith Kilby Smith, while carrying her six-month old daughter, was hit by a shot from a skirmisher and killed. The site of the Smith home is marked by two rows of trees on the west side of Carolina Road where it intersects with Dill Road and is shown below.
Mrs. Smith’s infant daughter Mattie died shortly after her mother.
On the 14th the Union flotilla moved up the river when two miles outside of Suffolk they rounded a bend in the river at Norfleet’s Point (south of where the present business Route 58 crosses the river) and came upon a new set of earthworks. As the ships passed, the Confederates opened fire. A shot through the boiler quickly disabled the Mount Washington. The West End grounded. The pictures below were taken during part of a tour offered by the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society. The group was led by Kermit Hobbs a well-known local historian. This is a picture of the western bank of the Nansemond River where it is crossed by Route 58. Fort Connecticut was on the eastern side of the river, shown in the image below, and was destroyed in the construction of the road.
The tree line on the western side of the bridge directly across the river from where these pictures were taken was the area of the Confederate Norfleet House, shown in the gallery below.
The Stepping Stones pulled the West End free and was towing the Mount Washington downriver when they came under fire from the Hill’s Point battery (Fort Huger). The helm of the Mount Washington broke and the ship grounded in front of the fort. The Commodore Barney came up and opened fire on the Confederate battery until around 6:00 PM when the rising tide allowed the Stepping Stones to free the Mount Washington and tow it safely out of range. The Union Navy lost 5 killed, 14 wounded and 1 missing.
The eastern flank was now completely defenseless but luckily for Union General Peck, Longstreet would focus on the foraging aspect of his mission. The Union would probe south of the city down the Somerton and White Marsh Roads only to find them blocked by Pickett’s division. During the evening of the 14th and early morning hours of the 15th General Getty was trying to find a way to silence the Norfleet battery from east of the Nansemond. He would establish Battery Kimball and Battery Morris only 1,200 and 900 yards away, respectively.
Battery Kimball and Battery Morris were located in the tree line beyond the playground on private property (picture below).
In short order on the morning of the 15th, the Federals were able to take out all three of the guns of the Norfleet Battery from Battery Kimball and Battery Morris. Getty reinstituted work on the fortifications on the east side of the Nansemond River during the night, to avoid fire from Confederate sharpshooters, and cut out corduroy roads and bridges between them. On the morning of the 17th Lieutenant Cushing established pickets on the west bank of the Nansemond and captured General French’s chief engineer, Henry J. Rogers. French retaliated the next day by sending 60 sharpshooters from the 6th SC to fire on three Union gunboats at anchor.
Attack on the Hill’s Point Battery
The most successful of the Confederate forts was the Hill’s Point Battery or Fort Huger where the main channel of the river was only 50 yards from the fort. There were 5 guns in the fort with two larger guns a few hundred yards behind it. Two companies of the 55th NC guarded the fort but they were near the guns in the rear. On April 18th two companies of the 54th AL were in the fort along with Captain Robert Stribling’s battery. General French was ill and did not visit the fort that day and no pickets were stationed. At 5:30 PM on the 19th, 130 men from the 8th CT and 140 from the 89th NY were picked up by the Stepping Stones at Council’s Landing. The men hid behind canvas screens on the deck. Lieutenant Lamson dropped the men off just above the fort about 30 feet from the bank after he accidentally hit a hidden piling and grounded. Captain Hazard Stevens led the men across a field and into a ravine in the rear of the fort with fixed bayonets. Captain Stevens came across the field shown below where you can see the housing development in the distance.
The Confederates were caught by surprise but managed to fire one round of grapeshot into the charging Yankees, killing four and wounding ten. Lamson brought four 12-pounder howitzers ashore firing two rounds of canister. The Federals stormed over the rear parapet and captured 5 guns and 15 chests of ammunition. Five officers and 66 men from the 54th AL were captured. Stribling’s battery lost four officers and 55 men captured. No Confederates were killed. Captain Stevens would subsequently be awarded the Medal of Honor. General Getty did not feel he could defend the fort on the west side of the river, and he withdrew his men under the cover of darkness late on the evening of the 20th with the help of the Navy.
The loss of Fort Huger in broad daylight was a source of great embarrassment to the Rebels, especially given that the rear of the fort was unguarded. The 55th NC was responsible for guarding the rear but due to a miscommunication they were too far away. The Alabamians and North Carolinians blamed each other. Colonel J.K. Connally of the 55th NC confronted Captain Cussons and Terrell of the 44th AL regarding some disparaging remarks made against his unit. Cussons denied making them but told Colonel Connally that if he had given his men orders to retire when the enemy appeared in front of them that they obeyed them promptly. A duel ensued between the men that also involved Major Alfred Belo from the 55th NC on April 28th. There no injuries to any of the parties with each side claiming the other had apologized.
The next two pictures were taken from the base of the northern wall standing next to the please don’t feed the alligators sign during the Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society tour.
The next two images were taken from the top of the southern wall.
On April 30th Longstreet received orders to rejoin General Lee. He would need several days to collect all his foraging wagons some of which were far into North Carolina. General Peck knew that Hooker was on the move in Virginia and was expecting Longstreet to head there. Late on the afternoon of May 1st he sent 210 men from the 99th NY commanded by Colonel David Wardrop out down the South Quay Road to investigate. The road crossed the dam at Kilby’s Mill Pond and the area that is now the Suffolk Golf Course. Union artillery from Fort Rosecrans, the South Quay Battery and Fort Nansemond fired on what was thought to be the area of the Confederate defensive line. Part of that line was occupied by the 55th NC commanded by Major Belo who were anxious to avenge their humiliation at Fort Huger. They waited until the New Yorkers were at very close range before unleashing a murderous volley killing 13 and wounding 32, a casualty rate of 21%. A high price to pay to learn that the Confederates still manned their lines.
Two days later General Peck designed an even more elaborate plan to test if Longstreet was still there, which became known as the Battle of Providence Church Road. He would launch a three pronged attack. At 9:00 AM four regiments of infantry (103rd NY, 25th NJ, 89th NY and the 13th NH) supported by artillery and cavalry crossed the Nansemond River on a pontoon bridge at the modern-day bridge that crosses the river on North Main Street (Civil War- Providence Church Road). Two infantry forces were to be transported across the river and link up at Reed’s Ferry. The first would land in Chuckatuck and the other near Fort Huger. The four infantry regiments ran into heavy resistance from two Alabama Regiments behind earthworks. The first line of earthworks was near the ruins of Captain Nathaniel Pruden’s house across the street from the Walmart. Today a strip mall sits at this location.
The Alabamians fell back to their second line near Elephant’s Fork. Captain Lewis Buzzell of the 13th NH and Colonel Benjamin Ringold of the 103rd NY were killed. After a two hour long-range firefight the Federals withdrew.
The other two components of the attack were also failures. The 4th RI that was to land at Fort Huger landed at the wrong location, eventually made it to Fort Huger, but met heavy resistance trying to get to Reed’s Ferry and fell back. The third prong that were transported to Chuckatuck made it to Reed’s Ferry but when their comrades failed to join them, they returned to the river and their lines. Along the way they captured a Confederate Lieutenant and 15 enlisted men. What General Peck would soon learn, at 11:00 PM that evening, from two Confederate deserters was that Longstreet was evacuating the area that night. Colonel Dodge set out after the Confederates with his cavalry followed by infantry. The Union infantry stopped at Holland’s Crossroads and Dodge continued the chase to the Blackwater River. They captured 40-50 stragglers. Several members of the 9th VA took advantage of the night march and deserted. By 2:00 PM on the 4th all the Confederates were across the Blackwater River. The “Siege” of Suffolk was over. General Peck reported that during the 24-day siege his loses were 44 killed, 202 wounded and 14 missing. The Union Navy suffered 11 killed, 16 wounded and 4 captured. Confederate loses were never quantified. John Habberton was the first to reach the Providence Church and discovered the Rebels has used it as a hospital. Its floors were covered in blood, the walls were covered with graffiti and there were a dozen new graves in the front churchyard. The order was given that all confederate earthworks were to be destroyed.
Sources
Storm over Suffolk The Years 1861-1865 by Kermit Hobbs Jr.
The War Hits Home by Brian Steel Wills
Suffolk-Nansemond Historical Society Tour conducted by Kermit Hobbs. The tour is operated yearly by the Historical Society.