Siege of Suffolk - The Siege

The Siege

Longstreet's forces moved against Suffolk on April 11, crossed the Nansemond River, captured several pickets and routed a cavalry regiment. However, General Peck quickly secured the garrison and the Confederate advance led by Brig. Gen. Micah Jenkins' brigade decided not to assault the garrison and instead entrenched on the west bank of the Nansemond.

Peck felt that the southern fronts would be hit the hardest and withdrew most of the infantry from the river defenses for support thus leaving the river almost entirely to the navy. Longstreet's forces did in fact strike the southern lines first. Maj. Gen. George Pickett's Confederate division probed Foster's and Dodge's fronts driving in the Union picket lines. Confederate reconnaissance showed the Union works to be too strong for a frontal attack. The next day Foster sallied out and recaptured his lost picket lines. For the next several days Pickett tested Corcoran's lines trying to find a weakness. Pickett even sent scouting parties into the Dismal Swamp looking for a possible flanking route but abandoned that idea. Longstreet quickly realized any action on the southern front would be futile and a flanking maneuver would have to be against the lightly defended river front. Action subsided on the southern front as the attention of both Peck and Longstreet moved to the north.

A second Confederate division under Maj. Gen. John Bell Hood moved up and entrenched above and below Suffolk on the west bank. Hood's infantry picked at Lt. Lamson's upper river flotilla, which made for an easy target but it was apparent that infantry alone could not clear the river.