The Battle of Globe Tavern, also known as the Second Battle of the Weldon Railroad, fought August 18–21, 1864, south of Petersburg, Virginia, was the second attempt of the Union Army to sever the Weldon Railroad during the siege of Petersburg of the American Civil War. A Union force under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren destroyed miles of track and withstood strong attacks from Confederate troops under General P.G.T. Beauregard and Lieutenant General A.P. Hill. It was the first Union victory in the Richmond–Petersburg Campaign. It forced the Confederates to carry their supplies 30 miles (48 km) by wagon to bypass the new Union lines that were extended farther to the south and west.
As the siege of Petersburg began to take hold, Union lieutenant general Ulysses S. Grant continued to look for ways to sever the railroad links supplying the city of Petersburg, Virginia, Confederate general Robert E. Lee's army, and the Confederate capital of Richmond. One of these critical supply lines was the Petersburg Railroad, also called the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad, which led south to Weldon, North Carolina, and connected to the Wilmington and Weldon Railroad which led to the Confederacy's only remaining major port, Wilmington, North Carolina. In the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road, June 21–23, the II Corps was able to destroy a short segment of the Petersburg Railroad before being driven off by the Third Corps of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
In August, the II Corps operated north of Petersburg, threatening Richmond and its railroads in the Second Battle of Deep Bottom. Simultaneously, Grant planned another attack against the Weldon. The V Corps supported by units from the IX Corps, II Corps, and a small cavalry division commanded by Brigadier General August Kautz, was chosen for the attack under the overall command of the V Corps commander, Major General Gouverneur K. Warren. While the overall Confederate commander, General Robert E. Lee, was observing at the Deep Bottom battle, General P.G.T. Beauregard was the senior commander at Petersburg. Lieutenant General A.P. Hill commanded the Third Corps, Beauregard's primary infantry force.
I have seen your despatch expressing your unwillingness to break your hold where you are. Neither am I willing. Hold on with a bulldog grip, and chew and choke as much as possible.
Grant remarked to his staff, "The President has more nerve than any of his advisors."
At dawn on August 18, Warren advanced to the south through rain and over muddy roads, pushing aside Confederate pickets and a cavalry brigade, and reached the railroad at Globe Tavern around 9 a.m. Parts of the division under Brigadier General Charles Griffin began to destroy the track while a brigade from Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division formed in line of battle and moved north to block any Confederate advance from that direction. Brigadier General Lysander Cutler's division was held in reserve. Ayres encountered Confederate troops at about 1:00 p.m. and Warren ordered the division under Brigadier General Samuel W. Crawford to move forward on Ayres's right in an attempt to outflank the Confederate left.
The American Civil War (1861–1865) was the deadliest conflict in American history, killing an estimated 620,000 to 750,000 soldiers and an unknown number of civilians. The Confederate States of America, formed by eleven seceding Southern states, faced the Union in four years of warfare across 23 states and territories. Major engagements included First and Second Bull Run, Antietam (the bloodiest single day in American history, September 17, 1862), Chancellorsville, Gettysburg (July 1–3, 1863), Vicksburg (surrendered July 4, 1863), and Sherman's March through Georgia and the Carolinas (1864–1865). President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, transforming the war's stated purpose to include the abolition of slavery and enabling the enlistment of approximately 180,000 Black men in the United States Colored Troops. Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. The war resolved the question of secession and ended American slavery, though Reconstruction would face sustained resistance in its attempt to secure civil rights for formerly enslaved people.
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