"Cutting the Supply Lines " Topic

The Battles of Weldon Railroad and Reams Station

"On August 22, 1864, the smell of fresh earth hung in the air as Union soldiers continued to throw damp clay and sand upon the newly cut pine log revetments. Having finally wrestled the Weldon Railroad from the clutches of Robert E. Lee's army, members of Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's V Corps strengthened their entrenchments that ran parallel to, and across their newly won prize.

After an unsuccessful attempt to gain this supply line on June 21-23 in the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, the Federals made a second grab for the line on August 18. Intercepting the railroad in the area of Globe Tavern, six miles south of Petersburg along the Halifax Road, General Warren turned two divisions of his corps toward the Confederate defenses south of the city. His reconnaissance-in-force was actually made up of four divisions under Brigadier Generals Charles Griffin, Samuel Crawford, Romeyn Ayres and Lysander Cutler. Being informed of this enemy movement General P.G.T. Beauregard sent out infantry and cavalry under Generals Henry Heth and James Dearing to oppose this advance. Heth's two brigades commanded by Brigadier Generals Joseph R. Davis and Henry H. Walker collided with Ayres' and Crawford's Divisions about a mile north of the tavern. In the open fields and woods of the Wells and Davis farms, the two armies fought to a standstill, both giving and taking ground…"
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At the beginning of the war … with a greater and better cavalry … the South should not have worked more in this?

Amicalement
Armand

Bear in mind this action took place in the context of the siege of Petersburg. Cutting the supply lines was a series of lurches to the left for the AoP.

The Confederates certainly did their level best early in the war to use cavalry to disrupt Union supplies but they were never able to make the inconvenience last due to the Union's superior ability to fix the railroads almost as fast as they were torn up (the Rebs use to joke the Federal engineers carried portable tunnels to replace the ones destroyed by raiders.)

The railroads were the objects of numerous Confederate cavalry raids in Tennessee and Kentucky. That's how Forrest, Morgan, Wheeler, Van Dorn et al made their reputations. In Virginia the Federals' supply line was usually not very long, so not as vulnerable.

Thanks!.

Amicalement
Armand