Confederate Alamo of the East - Fort Gregg, Petersburg, VA (5,000 vs 300)
The “Alamo of the East” or “Confederate Alamo” occurred this day in history on April 2, 1865. As explained on the historical marker, it was here that 5,000 Yankee Federals swept forward to attack just 300 southern Americans/Confederates who were trapped and surrounded with the homes and city they were defending to their backs. Just the day before, Grant’s 63,000 Union soldiers had attacked and overwhelmed the 18,500 southern defenders of Petersburg, causing the fall of that historic city that had been under siege for nearly 10 months. As the marker explains, the 300 southerners managed to repulse three successive attacks before they were finally overwhelmed by the sheer numbers; “the attackers reached the fort’s parapet. For twenty minutes a vicious hand-to-hand battle raged.” Veterans of the entire war called it “the most savage fighting I have ever experienced.” The book “Confederate Alamo” states, the Confederates “Homeric (heroic) defense is an apt description of that da...