 Complete the following phrase:  Ulysses S. Grant, who did not think highly of Butlers military skills, ordered him to attack in the direction of Petersburg from the east, destroying the rail links supplying Richmond and distracting Robert E. Lee, in conjunction with attacks Grant would make from the north. Although Petersburg at this time was lightly defended and Butler could have occupied it with little difficulty, he hesitated and allowed a greatly inferior Confederate force under General Pierre G.T. Beauregard to box up the Army of the James on the Bermuda Hundred Peninsula. As a result, the Army of Northern Virginia arrived and dug in around Petersburg, resulting in an eight-month siege of the city. However, it was his mismanagement of the expedition against 