Petersburg, VA

Finally left the swamp in South Carolina and modified our plan yet again.  Originally I had wanted to camp in Croatan National Forest in North Carolina but honestly, we didn't want to see any more mosquitos.  Instead we drove all the way across North Carolina and almost reached Petersburg, VA.  We made a mental health stop at a motel and ate a boatload of food at a barbeque buffet in Emporia, VA.  Imagine grits, fried everything, black-eyed-peas, hush puppies, red jello with fruit and Cool-Whip and a big fluffy cake with frosting.

We reached Petersburg the next foggy grey morning.  The siege of Petersburg was really the last stand for the Confederacy but it took nine months to resolve itself.  Grant tried to attack the city straight on but was pushed back so his soldiers began to dig miles and miles of trenches.  For nine months both sides sent cannon fire back and forth but accomplished nothing.  Slowly Grant and the Union troops gained an edge and cut the four railroad lines, one by one.  Desperate for supplies, Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia abandoned Petersburg on 2 April, 1865.  Richmond, the Confederate capitol fell a few days later and now the stage was set for the Grant and Lee's final confrontation at Appomattox one week later.

A restored example of the 20-30 miles of trenches that side built.

This soldier is clearly out uniform and will probably be arrested immediately.

Most people know the Siege of Petersburg for the Crater.  Soon after the siege began, in the summer of 1864, a regiment of Welsh miners from Pennsylvania suggested digging a tunnel from the Union line under the Confederate line and blowing a gap in the fortification.  Amazingly enough, this crazy plan was approved by Gen. Grant. This is the beginning of the tunnel.

Four thousand pounds of gun powder blew a hole 30 feet deep and 170 feet long in the Confederate line.  Then the plan went awry.  The Union command did nothing for over an hour.  Finally, soldiers went into the gap and were ordered to not to go down into the crater.  Of course, in the smoke and confusion that was just what they did and the Union troops were massacred.  Grant was furious and nothing was accomplished.  The Crater today is probably about 15 feet deep.