The wide-ranging and largely ignored operations around Petersburg, Virginia, were the longest and most extensive of the entire Civil War. The fighting began in June of 1864, when advance elements from the Union Army of the Potomac crossed the James River and botched a series of attacks against a thinlydefended city. The fighting ended nine long months later in the first days of April of 1865. The Five Forks Campaign and the Fall of Petersburg, March 29 - April 2, 1865, includes the final major operation that turned Lee's right flank, cut his final railroad lifeline, and resulted in the loss of