Fort Gregg
Strong point in Petersburg defenses where elements of XXIV and SSV Corps saw action during Petersburg Final Assault, 2 April 1865
"[Grant] . . . ordered an assault early on the morning of April 2.
"At 2 p. m. the enemy advanced upon Forts Gregg and Whitworth. . . .
"Men, the salvation of the army is in your keep. Don't surrender this fort", Confederate Gen. Nathaniel H. Harris shouted above the roar of cannon to the 214 soldiers he was leaving in Fort Gregg, an unfinished earthwork defending the southwestern approach to Petersburg, VA. It was 1:00pm and two Union divisions- 10 times more numerous than the defenders- were just beginning the attack when the leading ranks were staggered by the hail of gunfire from the fort. Pvt. Frank Foote from Mississippi related, "Each defender had two or three rifles at hand, and while the rear rank loaded them, the front rank handled them with most deadly execution."
http://civilwar.bluegrass.net/battles-campaigns/1865/650402b.html
Forts Gregg and Whitworth, about 300 yards apart, stood about 1000 yards front of our main intrenchments.
Fort Gregg was defended by Capt. Chew of the 4th Md. battery and Lt. McElroy [3rd Co.] of the Washington Artillery, one gun each, and 62 dismounted artillery drivers, portions of the 12th and 16th Miss., under LtCol Jas. H. Duncan, and of Lane's brigade under Capt. Geo. H. Snow, 214 men in all.
Fort Whitworth was held by three guns of the Washington artillery and 19th and 48th Miss., until the final charge was being made upon Fort Gregg, when, by Lee's order, the garrison was withdrawn.
Several attacks by Foster's divison, of the 24th Corps., were repulsed. The last, aided by two brigades of Turner's division (while the 3rd brigade advanced upon Whitworth) swarmed over the parapet of Gregg and captured, inside, the two guns with two colors. Of the garrison, 55 were killed, 129 wounded, and only 30 were found uninjured of the 214.
[Alexander, pp. 592/3]
The Confederate artillery men inside Fort Gregg, their guns disabled, turned their shells into hand grenades . . . More of our men were killed after the Yankees got into the fort than during the fighting. When the fighting stopped,it was found that, out of the approximately 300 defenders, 56 had been killed and about 200 wounded. [86, V. 4, p. 484]
The defenders of Fort Gregg probably numbered not more than 500, they beat off one assault, then another and another till count was lost. Wounded we loaded rifles and handled them with bloody hands to comrades behind the paraphets . . . the few unwounded left in the fort fought hand to hand for twenty-five minutes on the parapet. [Lee's Lts., V. 3, p. 682]
At about 1 o'clock three of Ord's brigades swept down upon Fort Gregg. The garrison of 300 (under LCol. J. H. Duncan) with two rifled cannon made a desperate defense, and a most gallant contest took place. For half an hour after out men had gained the parapet a bloody hand-to-hand struggle continu ed, but nothing could stand against the onslaught of Ord's troops, flushed with their morning victory. By half past two 57 of the brave garrison were dead, and about 25o surrendered. Fort Whitworth was at once abandoned. [Battles & Leader, V. 4, p. 717]
It [39th Illinois] crossed to the left of the Army of the Potomac, and on the 2d day of April took part in the charge upon Fort Gregg, the key to the works about Petersburg and Richmond. It was an enclosed work, situated upon an eminence, the country surrounding which was open, and commanded by five other forts and redoubts. Immediately surrounding it was a ditch six feet deep and twelve feet wide. It fell to the lot of the First Brigade to charge and take the fort; and the Thirty-ninth was the first Regiment to gain the ditch, and the first to plant her flag upon the structure. Out of nine of her color-guard, seven were shot down. After gaining the ditch the conflict became most desperate. On account of the abruptness and slippery nature of the side of the ditch, it was only by digging foot-holds in the earth, with swords and bayonets, that the boys were enabled to gain the parapet, where the struggle was hand-to-hand, and lasted for the period of half an hour where success crowned the effort, which was the capture of the fort and the entire garrison. Out of one hundred and fifty (150) members of the Thirty-ninth who went into that fight, (the balance of the Regiment being on picket duty) sixteen (16) were shot dead, and now lie buried where they fell, and forty-five (45) more severely wounded, many of whom had since died.
http://civilwar.ilgenweb.net/history/039.html
Three successive attacks were repulsed before the federal troops, on the strength of sheer numbers, breached the parapets and swarmed into the fort. The fighting continued hand to hand inside the fort until there were only 30 defenders left standing to be captured. The battle lasted less than two hours, but the gallant defense bought the time Lee needed. Fifty-five of the defenders were killed and 129 wounded. The federal losses of 122 killed and 592 wounded were in total more than triple the number of Rebels in the fort.
Fascinating Fact: "Don't fire that gun! Drop the lanyard or we'll shoot!" yelled the attackers at the single cannoneer at the fort's last gun. "Shoot and be damned!" he shouted back as he pulled the lanyard and sprayed canister into the blue ranks- and then fell on the gun, his body riddled with bullets.
Fort Gregg
One of the heroic events of the day was the defense of Fort Gregg, which with Fort Baldwin stood in the way of the Union advance. It is said that a garrison of 250 resisted three attacks by 5,000 Union troops and that 30 survived. These figures may be in error, but the fort's defenders used field guns as long as they could, then muskets,and then bayonets. Wounded men loaded guns and handed them to men still able to fight. A year later visitors could see the ground before the fort covered with the graves of Union dead, the ground behind it covered with the graves of Confederate dead. Fort Baldwin fell soon after Fort Gregg. The defense of Fort Gregg has been credited with preventing Grant's capture of Petersburg on April 2.
".. I can compare the appearance of Fort Gregg to nothing but a slaughterpen. The blue and the gray were there promiscuously heaped together. Their kindred blood commingling presented a sight not could not fail to impress one indelibly with the horrors of a civil war. I was informed that the defenders of Fort Gregg were sons of the Green Isle, which fact I can readily believe from their stubborn resistance to our troops. Among those found therein wearing the blood stained blue I recognized some of the 23rd Illinois, the remnant of Mulligan' Irish Brigade. One of the latter, named Dwyer, with whom I had been talking only a short time before he went in, was found among the slain..."
"The Flying, Gray-Haired Yank," 1888 by Capt. Michael Egan Co. B 12th West Virginia Infantry. Edmond O'Dwyer of the 23rd Illinois is in the regimental records as killed at Fort Gregg.
http://www.craterroad.com/finalassault.html
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Confederate Alamo: Bloodbath at Petersburgs Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 [Hardcover] John J. Fox (Author)
See also:
http://www.civilwar.org/battlefields/petersburg/maps/petersburgbreakthroughmap.html