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Virginia - North Carolina: Sunday, October 16, 2022

I am looking over the battlefield at Petersburg, Virginia.

This will probably be our last day of our epic Civil War portion of the trip. We visited Petersburg to see the site of the 9-month siege. Grant led a successful siege earlier in the war at Vicksburg. It took him a few months to encircle Vicksburg in order to cut off all supplies to the city, and one month of deprivation to wait for the city to give up. Petersburg was a far different nut to crack. The area around Petersburg was vast, well fortified, and reasonably well supplied by many railroads.


It wasn’t like that when the advance elements of Grant’s army arrived. This was one move that Grant made that took Lee completely by surprise. Petersburg was a railroad junction 24 miles south of Richmond. Lee expected Grant to attack Richmond, not go all the way around to Petersburg. This idea was reinforced by the “impossible” swamps, rivers, and backwaters that Grant faced between Cold Harbor and Petersburg.


Grant’s engineers heroically built the infrastructure to allow 122,000 men and equipment to travel over the “impossible” terrain, and do so quickly. So, when Union General “Baldy” Smith reached Petersburg with 20,000 troops, he faced a scant 2,300 Confederate troops along a series of 55 defensive batteries spread out for miles around the town. Due to some fubar (fucked up beyond all repair), Smith couldn’t attack until 7 pm. The attack captured nine of the batteries by nightfall. Pleased with his progress, Smith called a halt to the attack.


P.G.T. Beauregard, whose forces had bottled up General Butler’s Army of the James just a few miles away, quickly sent reinforcements to Petersburg. Lee, also hastily sent reinforcements. During the night, the Confederates dug in. The opportunity to waltz into Petersburg, with all of its vital supply lines and gateway to Richmond, was lost.


By this time, Grant knew a frontal assault would not work. He went to work on a siege. His strategy was to extend his lines westward, capturing railroads as he went. Lee had to extend his defensive lines to match Grant. After nine months of line-extending, the line was some 50 miles long. Lee just didn’t have the manpower to defend all of it. Lee’s line finally cracked at the end of March 1865. Lee surrendered on April 9.

Grant’s Overland Campaign started at the Wilderness on May 5, 1864 and reached Petersburg on June 18. It wasn’t until late March 1865 before Lee had to abandon Petersburg.

(left) Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard’s army was close to Petersburg. After General Smith showed up at Petersburg and took several of the undermanned batteries (fortifications) guarding Petersburg, Beauregard quickly rushed reinforcements to Petersburg. (By the way, P.G.T. stands for Pierre Gustave Toutant - what a great name.)


(Right) Union General “Baldy” Smith couldn’t get his attack on the undermanned Confederate batteries started until 7 pm. By nightfall, his forces had captured nine of the 55 batteries. He stopped the attack due to darkness as was the custom during the Civil War. Also, his troops were exhausted from a long tough march. However, as hindsight shows, his forces could have walked right into Petersburg that evening without a fight. Smith was basically “fired” for his lack of initiative.

This is all that is left of Confederate Battery 5, the first battery captured by Union troops when they attacked the defensive line at Petersburg. The slope on the left is the earthen wall that surrounds the battery. Confederate cannons were placed behind the earthen wall.

A cannon placed in Battery 5.

Once captured, Union forces brought in these mortars to constantly bombard Petersburg.

This is a re-creation of Battery 9. It shows how the batteries were fortified. First there is a row of sharpened poles aiming outward. Then there is a trench. Lastly, a sloping earthen wall is built.

The defenders and their cannon take position behind the earthen wall.

Some of the highlights of our tour included Battery 5, the first Confederate battery to fall on that first evening; the re-creation of Battery 9; Fort Steadman, Lee’s last gasp attack on Grant’s entrenchments before retreating; and the infamous Crater, the debacle that Grant called a “Stupendous Failure.”


We spent the most time at the Crater. During the summer of 1864, a group of Pennsylvanian soldiers who were miners in their former lives, approached General Burnside with a bold plan. They proposed to dig a tunnel, ending underneath a Confederate fort. They would pack the end of the tunnel with explosives and blow up the fort, opening up a spot for the Union to attack.


Burnside ran the idea up the chain of command. Grant gave it the go ahead. While the Pennsylvanians dug, Burnside trained a group of Colored Troops for the attack. To work, the troops were instructed not to go into the crater. They would be sitting ducks down there. Other troops would swarm in behind the initial brigade. Learning of this plan the night before the operation, General Meade feared that the public, and probably the powerful abolitionist Republicans in the government, would be pissed that colored troops were sent in first to be slaughtered. Meade did not have much faith in the plan. Meade ordered Burnside to assign a different brigade to lead the charge.


Freaked out over the last-minute change in plan, Burnside decided to have his division commanders draw straws to see who would lead their troops in first. General Ledlie got the honors. Ledlie was known as, “a poor excuse for a major general but a great drinker.” True to his reputation, Ledlie, instead of leading his troops, hid and drank himself into a stupor well behind the lines.


At 3 am on July 30, 1864, the Pennsylvanians lit the fuse. They waited, and waited, and waited. Nothing. Finally, one brave soul crept back into the tunnel and relit the fuse. This time, at 4:46 am, it worked. The explosion blew the fort clear up into the air. Ledlie’s untrained Union troops rushed in and immediately went into the crater for cover. Supporting troops also poured into the crater. The Confederates quickly regrouped. When they arrived at the rim of the crater, thousands of Union troops were trapped. 4,000 Union soldiers were killed or captured. During the whole assault, Ledlie was safely in the rear, drunk. Two weeks later, Burnside took a leave of absence and never returned.

The opening to the mine shaft where the Union Pennsylvanian troops started to dig their shaft. Notice how small the shaft was. I would have been afflicted with a frightful case of claustrophobia in that tiny hole.

The shaft was about 4’ high and 2 1/2’ wide.

Above and below: Interesting info plaques.

The crater quickly became a tourist site soon after the war.

The crater as it looks today.

The battle for Fort Stedman was General Lee’s last desperate attempt to break through Grant’s strangle-hold on Petersburg. On March 25, 1865, Lee launched a massive pre-dawn attack on the Union fort with 10,000 troops that he could ill afford to loose. The attack initially succeeded and Lee’s forces occupied the fort. However, Union forces reacted quickly and by 7:45 am had surrounded the fort. In the ensuing Union attack, Lee lost 4,000 men killed, wounded, or captured. It was a debacle that led Lee to abandon Petersburg and Richmond altogether.

Above: An info plaque.

The remains of Fort Stedman as it appear today. Even during the war, these weren’t the kind of forts that I had envisioned. They were crude earthen works that had some log structures.

A photograph of Fort Stedman during the Siege of Petersburg.

A depiction of the Union forces surrounding the fort, ready to retake it.

We could have spent a couple of days around the Petersburg battlefield. There were Civil War sites from City Point to Five Forks, some 30 miles apart. Instead, we decided to drive into Petersburg. I was shocked at how economically depressed the city was. We usually like to walk the downtowns and/or the historic neighborhoods. Unless we were missing something, we couldn’t find anywhere to put our landing gear down.


I googled the nearest Aldi. We needed some more sparkling water. We go through it like, well, water. Petersburg did have one so we drove out to it. It is located, as usual, near a Walmart in a vast sea of franchise Americana. Wow, Petersburg was either old-rundown or new-nondescript parking-lot box-store strip-mall franchise-city.


I had thought about driving into Richmond. The choice was to fight traffic into Richmond or leisurely drive back to camp via the ferry on the James River. We chose leisurely.


So, on our return to V-Jer, we took the lazy highway 10 running along the south side of the James River. That meant we had to ride the free ferry across the wide mouth of the river to reach our campground. The ferry swallowed up about 200 cars and dashed for the other side. It is a 3-mile boat ride and I loved it. I could get out and walk up to the upper deck and watch. The boat was amazingly fast. I think one could water ski behind it.

We caught the free ferry at the tiny village of Scotland. The wait for the ferry wasn’t bad, 15 minutes tops. The ferry crossing is the only game in town. There isn’t a bridge for miles.

There were two boats working this crossing - the Powhatan and Pocahontas. The ferry we rode, the Powhatan, was the larger of the two.

We met the smaller ferry, Pocahontas, going the opposite way.

Approaching the landing at Jamestown.

The ferry dropped us off at Jamestown. Yes, the site of the first American settlement, founded in 1607. It was already 4:30 pm so we went shopping for information regarding tours of Jamestown.


There are two Jamestown experiences. One is run by the State of Virginia and is called the Jamestown Settlement. Although it isn’t exactly on the original location, which is just a mile or so away, it is a re-created living museum. Dressed up actors portray life back in the 1600s.


The Jamestown National Historic Site is where the original site actually is, featuring ruins from the village. Both sites have plenty of historical information. We were advised to tour both sites, starting with the State re-enactment.


Before returning to camp, we drove up a couple of miles on the Colonial National Historical Parkway along the James River. The river offers wonderful views.

Unfortunately, tomorrow promises to be a washout. The next day will be cool but full sun. I believe we will save Jamestown for the next day.

Glossary of terms used for newcomers: 1) V-Jer. The name of our camper. 2) Saturn. The name of our Van. 3) Duende. Our mischievous gremlin that breaks things. 4) Tata. The good gremlin that helps us fix Duende’s dirty work. 5) The Black Hole. This is what we call Walmart because every time we go in for just a couple of items, we come out spending way more than we figured. 6) QT. Quaint Town. 7) Little Buddy. This is what we call our Dyson cordless stick vacuum.

Dave and Wanda

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