In April 1963, the Federal garrison at Suffolk, Virginia, commanded by Maj. Gen. John J. Peck, was attacked by 20,000 Confederates under Lt. Gen. James Longstreet, who had recently been detached from Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. For 22 days, Longstreet's rebels kept Peck's Yankees bottled up inside Suffolk while Confederate commissary agents emptied the surrounding countryside of precious food and forage.