lee is going to lose on march 25 1865, over 3500 soldiers in this fight at fort stedman. those are 3500 men lee could ill afford to lose at his defense at petersburg. if you think about it, by the calendar, march 25 is just one week to the beginning of april and only two weeks before april 9, 1865. so with the failed assault on fort stedman lee is now going to be forced by a union assault. it figures of lee could assault but that many men from the east of petersburg, he must've weakened his line somewhere, and so he orders his other units to probe and the union six core which finds us up to the south and west of petersburg, will end up capturing a large portion of the picket line in front of them along the jones farm. and it is there that they will use this new extended position to start looking for places where they may possibly break through the confederate lines. but perhaps even more importantly that day, is a visitor to that battlefield. because on march 25, 1865, not only are these two armies against one another, but the president of the united states is going to wa