At the beginning of October 1864, the only equipment most Union soldiers near Petersburg, Virginia, needed was a shovel--including Gen. Edgar Gregory's new reserve brigade, which was digging trenches around the besieged city.
Most of the brigade's volunteer members from New York had never fired a musket upon marching into the swamps and woods southwest of Petersburg. But the dusty blue-collar workers became a force to be reckoned with as they dug and marched westward to force Gen. Robert E. Lee to extend forces away from Petersburg.
Following the brigade's largest battle,...
At the beginning of October 1864, the only equipment most Union soldiers near Petersburg, Virginia, needed was a shovel--including Gen. Edgar Grego...
