What tactic did Ulysses Grant use succesfully against the confederates at petersburg?

Answer 1

a siege

Answer 2

Grant knew that the Confederates were running out of manpower, food and supplies. It was just a matter of battering away at them till they starved.

After mid-June 1864 the Confederates lacked sufficient manpower to be able to keep to the open field. This meant they no longer could use mobility to confound the Yankees. They were pinned in position. Around both Richmond and Petersburg earthworks had been built at earlier times in the war. Now the Rebels connected the earthworks on the east side of the two cities. Richmond is about twenty-five miles directly north of Petersburg. From north of Richmond to south of Petersburg, for a distance of about fifty miles, these trenches extended on the east side of both towns. The Yankees dug in elaborate trenches of their own opposite those of the Rebels.

Lee had said sometime earlier that if ever he were forced into the defenses of Richmond and Petersburg, then, it would only be a matter of time. This was because Lee lacked the manpower to adequately man his lines. Grant understood this as well.

So what Grant did was to continually extend his left, curving his lines around below Petersburg. All the railroads and wagon roads from the south, upon which both cities depended for supplies for survival, flowed into Petersburg from the south. One by one Grant cut these.

But each time Grant extended his left, Lee was forced to likewise extend his right, thinning his line elsewhere, stretching his thin resources until finally they could be stretched no more, and broke. A few days after cutting the last of the lines of supply from the south, Grant mounted a frontal attack on a portion of Lee's lines. The Confederates were too few to repulse the attack, and were forced to give up the two cities, and try to make a getaway to the west.

Answer 3

Simple attrition.

He had already ended the system of prisoner-exchange, so he knew the Confederates were bound to run out of men first.

Then he just battered away at Lee's troops, forcing him to extend his lines, till they grew too thin to hold.

Answer 4

Grant used Siege Warfare at Petersburg .