The Battle of Chaffin's Farm and New Market Heights, also known as Laurel Hill and combats at Forts Harrison, Johnson, and Gilmer, was fought in Virginia on September 29–30, 1864, as part of the

siege of Petersburg The Richmond–Petersburg campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War. Although it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg, it was not a cla ...

in the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by state ...

Background

From the very beginning of the war, Confederate engineers and slave laborers had constructed permanent defenses around Richmond. By 1864, they had created a system anchored south of the capital on the

James River The James River is a river in the U.S. state of Virginia that begins in the Appalachian Mountains and flows U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed April 1, 2011 to Ches ...

at Chaffin's Farm, a large open area at

Chaffin's Bluff Chaffin's Bluff is located in Henrico County, Virginia, United States, on the north side of the James River, opposite Drewry's Bluff, long-considered a major defense point of the river below Richmond. Located at a major bend in the river about eig ...

, both named for a local landowner. This outer line was supported by an intermediate and inner system of

fortifications A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

much closer to the capital. In July and August 1864, these lines were tested by Union Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant in offensives designed to attack simultaneously north and south of the James. On July 27–29, the

Army of the Potomac The Army of the Potomac was the principal Union Army in the Eastern Theater of the American