| Popis: |
From late June to mid-July 1864, the period between Grant’s Second and Third Petersburg Offensives, soldiers on both sides experienced hardships caused by drought and deluge, enervating heat, and particularly for the Confederates, an unreliable diet. Casualties mounted from relentless sharpshooting and mortar attacks, but the majority of soldiers in both armies maintained good morale. The average Johnny Reb believed that Robert E. Lee could never be driven from Petersburg and Richmond. Most Billy Yanks trusted their commander, Ulysses S. Grant, evincing a strong desire to see the war through to a successful conclusion, regardless of how long it took. Still, desertion began to plague both armies as the summer ground on with no end to the fighting in sight. The soldiers constructed ever more elaborate field fortifications and gradually adapted to life in their trenches and bombproofs. Grant detached most of his cavalry and an infantry corps to counter a threat to Washington posed by Confederates under Jubal Early and made a controversial change in the command of the 18th Corps. |
