Redoubt Near Avery House
“HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, ENGINEER DEPT., November 7, 1864. COLONEL: The following report for the week ending on the 5th instant, exhibiting the engineering operations of the Army of the Potomac during that period, is respectfully submitted for the information of the lieutenant-general commanding the Armies of the United States. … Lieutenant Benyard, assisted by Lieutenant Lydecker, superintended the construction of the redoubts near the Avery house and the Friend house, and the former also directed the countermining at Fort Stedman. The redoubts have both been completed and the listening galleries driven forty feet.” O.R. vol. 40, 1: 176
The redoubt was built to control movement on the Norfolk Stage Road and also to cover any actions by the Confederates against the Federal main line and its forts. This purpose is outlined in a letter from John C. Tidball, Chief of Artillery for the IX Corps in spring 1865 during the Battle of Fort Stedman in a letter to Orlando Willcox, commander of the 1st Division IX Army Corps:
"The whole affair from beginning to end, was most singular--singular in its inception by the Confederates; singular that after getting possession of a half mile or so of our line they failed to push forward and gain possession of Fort Friend, Battery No. IV, and the ridge in front of Meade's Station. These two works, together with Fort Avery, were no doubt the three forts referred to by Jeff Davis and and General Gordon as being the chief objective points after breaking our line at Stedman.
Fort Avery was in the rear of that part of the line held by Potter's division, and in the same line with Fort Friend and Battery No. IV. Like these, it was a regularly constructed inclosed work, mounting at that time four 4 1/2 siege rifles, which commanded with their fire that part of our line from Fort Haskell to Fort Rice. Battery No. IV was armed with three 30 pdr. Parrotts, commanding all that part of the line from the Appomattox to Battery No. IX. Fort Friend, being near your headquarters, you know was a strong little work.
These were important works, judiciously armed as a provision against any break the enemy might make in our line-- such as did occur at Stedman. At the time of their construction, their object was not fully comprehended by the soldiers who had to do the labor, and who, grumbling, ridiculed the idea of building forts in the rear of the main line".
Robert Garth Scott, Forgotten Valor, The Memoirs, Journals, & Civil War Letters of Orlando B. Willcox. Kent University Press, 1999.
The redoubt was built to control movement on the Norfolk Stage Road and also to cover any actions by the Confederates against the Federal main line and its forts. This purpose is outlined in a letter from John C. Tidball, Chief of Artillery for the IX Corps in spring 1865 during the Battle of Fort Stedman in a letter to Orlando Willcox, commander of the 1st Division IX Army Corps:
"The whole affair from beginning to end, was most singular--singular in its inception by the Confederates; singular that after getting possession of a half mile or so of our line they failed to push forward and gain possession of Fort Friend, Battery No. IV, and the ridge in front of Meade's Station. These two works, together with Fort Avery, were no doubt the three forts referred to by Jeff Davis and and General Gordon as being the chief objective points after breaking our line at Stedman.
Fort Avery was in the rear of that part of the line held by Potter's division, and in the same line with Fort Friend and Battery No. IV. Like these, it was a regularly constructed inclosed work, mounting at that time four 4 1/2 siege rifles, which commanded with their fire that part of our line from Fort Haskell to Fort Rice. Battery No. IV was armed with three 30 pdr. Parrotts, commanding all that part of the line from the Appomattox to Battery No. IX. Fort Friend, being near your headquarters, you know was a strong little work.
These were important works, judiciously armed as a provision against any break the enemy might make in our line-- such as did occur at Stedman. At the time of their construction, their object was not fully comprehended by the soldiers who had to do the labor, and who, grumbling, ridiculed the idea of building forts in the rear of the main line".
Robert Garth Scott, Forgotten Valor, The Memoirs, Journals, & Civil War Letters of Orlando B. Willcox. Kent University Press, 1999.
"Redoubt Near Avery House," Federal engineers plan, NARA RG77 Drawer 150 - Sheet 65 1/2. Courtesy of Petersburg National Battlefield.
