Battle of Patients and Penitents

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The Battle of Patients and Penitents, also known as the Battle of Old Men and Young Boys, was a small engagement fought June 9, 1864, during the Siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War. Union forces unsuccessfully attacked the defenses of Petersburg, Virginia, which were primarily manned by patients from area hospitals and prisoners from local jails.

Due to a severe manpower shortage in the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, the defenses of Petersburg were manned by a handful of battle-weary brigades of regular troops, augmented heavily by local militia composed of old men and young boys. The overall commander of the defenses, P. G. T. Beauregard shuffled troops from sector to sector of the entrenchments to cover gaps and weak spots. On June 9, 1864, the city was threatened by a corps under Quincy A. Gillmore, which crossed the Appomattox River on pontoon bridges at Point-of-Rocks. Among them was a 5,000-man division of Federal cavalry under August Kautz.

Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise, whose depleted brigade was the only regular Confederate troops in the threatened area, ordered area hospitals and jails to release their able-bodied men. They formed two companies and marched down Blandford Road towards the defenses to supplement the meager defensive force, which scarcely numbered 2,200 men. A band composed of black men played sprightly tunes to bolster morale.

The untrained and hastily assembled force of prisoners, penitents, old men, and boys held off an attack by Kautz's Federals enough for Beauregard to rush up his only reserves, regular Confederate troops under Brig. Gen. James Dearing and Graham's artillery battery, to finish off the unexpected Confederate victory.

[edit] References

  • Roman, Alfred, The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1883.
  • Battle description at National Park Service website