The Siege of Petersburg lasted 292 days from June 15, 1864, to April 2, 1865, making it the longest siege in American military history. After failing to break through Confederate defenses in a series of initial assaults, Union General Ulysses S. Grant settled into a grinding campaign of attrition against General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. The siege featured extensive trench warfare stretching nearly 40 miles around Petersburg, a critical railroad hub 23 miles south of Richmond. B