BGuthrie Photos: VA -- Petersburg Battlefields Trail

VA -- Petersburg Battlefields Trail:

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. PETBFT_150607_025.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields The Campaign for Petersburg "The charge of Major-Gen. Wright's veterans under cover of the darkness and mist ... will forever live in history as one of the grandest and most sublime actions of the war." -- Sgt. Newton J. Terrill, 14th New Jersey Infantry, USA "The Army of Northern Virginia got whipped badly. The killed & wounded was large. An awful sad day in the Army & I reckon all over the country." -- Lt. James E. Phillips, 12th Virginia Infantry, CSA The ground before you witnessed one of the most decisive attacks of the entire Civil War. Early on the morning of April 2 1865, some 14,000 Union soldiers crossed eight hundred yards of open ground and attacked about 2,800 Confederates manning a line of earthworks protecting access to Petersburg. The Federal victory here broke Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's previously impenetrable defenses and, along with other Union gains, prompted Lee to order the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. This breakthrough came after months of effort. In September and October 1864, the Federals made key terrain gains at the Battle of Peebles' Farm. For six months thereafter, troops in blue and gray occupied opposing picket lines, exchanging shots, coffee, and tobacco. On March 25, 1865, the Battle of Jones Farm set the stage for ultimate Union success. This trail connects the Union works preserved by Petersburg National Battleﬁeld with the Confederate works within Pamplin Historical Park and crosses the ground saved by the Civil War Trust. The trail covers approximately two miles round trip and takes about 90 minutes to walk. Please note that Pamplin Historical Park charges an entrance fee, which is payable at the park's Battleﬁeld Center or at the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier.
2. PETBFT_150607_034.JPG: Gen. Horatio G. Wright commanded the Union Sixth Corps, whose troops made the attacks here on March 25 and April 2, 1865. Courtesy Library of Congress Confederate Gen. Ambrose Powell Hill commanded the Third Corps of the Army of Northern Virginia, which bore responsibility for the Confederate defenses immediately southwest of Petersburg. From Miller's Photographic History of the Civil War
3. PETBFT_150607_069.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields The Union Line "We have set what we call Johnny catchers ... long poles set into the ground with the upper end about as high as a man's head and they are so thick that a rabbit could not crawl through." -- Corp. Andrew W. Burwell, 5th Wisconsin Infantry, USA "The breastworks behind which stood the brave army in blue appeared to be as impenetrable by any force which Lee could send against them as is a modern ironclad to the missiles from an ordinary field battery." -- Gen. John B. Gordon, CSA The Union army extended its line of fortifications in the fall of 1864, including the classic examples of an earthwork defensive system preserved by the Petersburg National Battlefield. In addition to the obstructions placed in front of the main earthworks -- the Civil War version of barbed wire described by Corp. Burwell -- Union engineers devised a complex series of enclosed forts, artillery batteries, and infantry works, or "curtains," to create a system of mutually supporting fire. This stretch of the line includes Fort Welch, Battery XXVI, and infantry breastworks that you may visit by walking along Petersburg National Battlefield's path to the left and right of this exhibit. Union forts, accessible by a ramp or sally port located at the rear, featured a dry moat and housed a garrison of infantry and artillery pieces located in fixed firing positions. Batteries were open in the rear and often included traverses -- works perpendicular to the main line to limit the effects of incoming shells. Breastworks for infantry connected these positions, making for an integrated defense that deterred all but the most desperate efforts.
4. PETBFT_150607_075.JPG: Although the earthen portions of these fortifications remain in remarkably good condition, the wooden elements rotted away long ago.
5. PETBFT_150607_077.JPG: The exterior of the Federal works included a dry ditch or moat, abatis, and fraise (pointed stakes inclined toward the enemy), all designed to slow down attackers at point blank range for defenders.
6. PETBFT_150607_109.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields Contested Ground From here at Fort Welch, you can see the ground over which soldiers struggled during three distinct battles. On October 2, 1864, Federals advanced across the ground to your left in an attempt to capture the key Confederate intermediate supply route, the Boydton Plank Road, on the last day of the Battle of Peebles' Farm. The attack failed, but the Federals won a foothold and established the line of works in which you stand. "There has not been a day nor an hour that out front line has not been in actual combat with the foe. Where can the student find a parallel to this in the warfare of any age or people?" -- "John," Union war correspondent "We only get five little crackers for one day rations. We don't get no meat now but about a twist a week. If that ain't hard times I don't know what hard times is." -- Pvt. Francis Marion Poteeet, 49th North Carolina Infantry, CSA On March 25, 1865, Federals attacked and captured the Confederate picket line to your front in what is known as the Battle of Jones Farm. That success formed the prelude to the massive Union attack across the entire field in front of you a week later, when on April 2 the Federals finally broke through the Southern lines. This attack is known as the Breakthrough, and it caused the entire Confederate front to collapse. In recent years the Civil War Trust and the National Park Service have worked to improve access and visibility around Fort Welch. Until 2014, the field in front of you was almost entirely wooded. - Courtesy Civil War Trust Battle of Peebles' Farm -- Union Advance -- October 2, 1864 The Breakthrough -- April 2, 1865 Battle of Jones Farm -- March 25, 1865 Main Confederate Line -- 1 Mile South Side Railroad -- 3 Miles Boydton Plank Road -- 1.5 Miles Main Confederate Line -- 1 Mile Richmond -- 25 Miles Petersburg -- 5 Miles
7. PETBFT_150607_134.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields Life between the Picket Lines "When a man is on picket at night he is monarch of all he surveys. No one living has more absolute power than he. His word is law." -- Corp. Lewis Bissell, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, USA "I have seen veterans of three full years who have faced death incessantly who believe in the southern cause as sincerely as I do, finally be conquered by gnawing hunger and desert to the enemy. I hate the idea, but I won't criticize." -- Sgt. James E. Whitehorne, 12th Virginia Infantry, CSA Daily freezing and thawing rendered the roads around Petersburg impassable during the winter of 1864-1865, bringing large-scale campaigning to a temporary halt. Both armies remained vigilant, however, and maintained a continuous line of pickets to provide early warning of any significant attacks and to prevent the enemy from gaining positions of observation. These pickets conducted their own brand of warfare for months, a routine that included periodic raids, unauthorized commerce, and desertion. Here on the Jones Farm the opposing picket lines were in plain view, as soldiers from both armies systematically cut down the remaining trees to provide firewood for their camps. Duty on the picket line could be dangerous. Whenever officers desired to update their intelligence about enemy activities, they authorized nocturnal raids that netted prisoners from the picket force. Officers outlawed trading with the enemy, but the rank and file skirted such regulations as often as possible. Confederates often swapped tobacco for Union coffee. Desertion proved more problematical. Hundreds of Confederates, discouraged by inedaquate rations and pessimism from the home front, crossed to the Union picket line seeking a personal end to their war. Surprisingly, many northern soldiers deserted as well, having collected generous enlistment bounties with little intention of actually serving.
8. PETBFT_150607_143.JPG: This contemporary drawing illustrates a typical vista across the opposing battle lines at Petersburg. Here the main lines were separated by nearly a mile of alternately muddy and dusty no-man's land guarded by opposing lines of pickets.
9. PETBFT_150607_147.JPG: Less than half a mile from here, the Federals built this 125-foot-high signal tower behind their main lines. Soldiers with telescopes could see for miles from the top. Courtesy Library of Congress
10. PETBFT_150607_155.JPG: Arthur Meade Pegram Born Oct. 5, 1885 Died Jan. 2, 1955 Charles Oscar Pegram Born Oct. 29, 1879 Died July 4, 1969 Edward Oscar Pegram Born Sept. 17, 1830 Died May 21, 1889 His Wife Octavia Boisseau Born Sept. 30, 1842 Died Aug. 25, 1907
11. PETBFT_150607_182.JPG: Remembered as "The Waterloo of the Confederacy," the important Battle of Five Forks set the stage for the true decisive action at Petersburg the following day.
12. PETBFT_150607_185.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields: The Final Petersburg Offensive: "No doubt a few more days will settle the fate of Petersburg. I shall be glad to welcome the dawn of peace, for I am tired of bloodshed." -- Col. Elisha Hunt Rhodes, 2nd Rhode Island Infantry, USA "A very small effort on the part of the enemy would carry the portion of our lines, and if this was done, our army would be cut in two beyond even the hope of reconstruction." -- Pvt. John H. Walters, Norfolk Light Artillery Blues, CSA The Sixth Corps breakthrough of April 2, 1865, capped a week of fighting and maneuvering southwest of Petersburg. Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant seized the initiative following the failed Confederate sortie at Fort Stedman on March 25 and targeted Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee's final two supply lines, the Boydton Plank Road and the South Side Railroad. Grant employed Gen. Philip H. Sheridan's newly arrived cavalry and the Fifth and Second Corps of the Army of the Potomac to execute his offensive. He began the operation on March 29. Sheridan's horsemen occupied the Boydton Plank Road at Dinwiddie Court House on the 29th without serious opposition, and Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren's Fifth Corps pressed forward farther north, fighting at the Lewis Farm and aiming for the railroad beyond Lee's extended right flank. Major engagements at White Oak Road and near Dinwiddie Court House on March 31 led to a showdown for control of the railroad at Five Forks on April 1, resulting in an overwhelming Union victory. Grant sensed that the Confederates had reached their breaking point and ordered an all-out assault on Lee's line at dawn, April 2. The Union Sixth Corps attacked across this ground that morning. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan arrived at Petersburg in late March 1865 after defeating a Confederate army in the Shenandoah Valley.
13. PETBFT_150607_197.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields The Sixth Corps Poised for Attack, April 2, 1865 "Gentlemen we are going to have a h--l of a fight at early daylight... if any of you have anything to say to your folks, wives, or sweethearts make your story short and get what sleep you can." -- Col. James Hubbard, 2nd Connecticut Heavy Artillery, USA "Sleep was weighing my eyelids down, and I... rolled myself up in my blanket by a smoldering fire, and slept to the music of shrieking shot and shell from Yankee batteries." -- Corp. Joseph S. Kimbrough, 14th Georgia Infantry, CSA The Union Sixth Corps bore responsibility for making the dawn attack in this sector. Gen. Horatio G. Wright marshaled some 14,000 men in forty-two infantry regiments and ordered them to move silently from their main line of earthworks to the picket line captured on March 25. Careful planning over a period of several days suggests that Wright considered the operation to be perilous and victory by no means certain. Dozens of Federal cannons unleashed a punishing bombardment on the Confederate lines on the night of April 1 that lasted for nearly three hours. When the guns fell silent, Wright's troops moved as quietly as possible to their designated jump-off points. The soldiers deployed across a front nearly one mile in width, poised to make an assault larger in scale than even the Civil War's most famous attack, Pickett's Charge at Gettysburg. Union Gen. George W. Getty commanded the Second Division of the Sixth Corps and led the attack in this sector. Getty's troops made the initial breakthrough on the morning of April 2, 1865. Gen. Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox commanded the Confederate troops that opposed the Union Sixth Corps on April 2. Only ten regiments of Wilcox's Division covered the mile-wide front across which the Federals attacked that morning.
14. PETBFT_150607_203.JPG: In the hours before the Sixth Corps attack on April 2, 1865, the fields around you were filled with soldiers wondering what their fate would be.
15. PETBFT_150607_220.JPG: Petersburg Battlefields Battle of Jones Farm, March 25, 1865 "As the enemy must have massed on the right of our line, they must have left their own line weak. How would it do for us to attack along the whole length of our line?" -- Gen. Horatio G. Wright, USA "The enemy swarmed up to the rifle pits and in scarcely more time than it has required to describe it, captured the picket line and swept up and down like a flame." -- Lt. James Fitz James Caldwell, McGowan's South Carolina Brigade, CSA March 25, 1865, at Petersburg is usually remembered for the Battle of Fort Stedman, styled "Lee's Last Grand Offensive." Here in the fields of the Jones Farm another battle occurred that day -- one with arguably more significance. Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee launched a desperate attempt to break the Union line east of Petersburg, about six miles from here, targeting a Federal stronghold called Fort Stedman. He stripped portions of his defenses west of the city in order to mass firepower against Fort Stedman. Lee's move created an opportunity for two Northern corps to assault the weakened Confederate line here. The Second and Sixth Corps attacked the elaborate Confederate picket line along a four-mile front and captured it in spirited fighting. In some places, such as these preserved earthworks, the Federals merely reversed the Confederate trenches rather than build a new line. That is why this short stretch of surviving works appears to face in two directions simultaneously. From this line of works, which extended for miles to the left and right, the Sixth Corps attacked on the morning of April 2, shortening the amount of ground required to reach the main Confederate line and greatly contributing to Union success that day. The same day that fighting was raging all around you at Jones Farm, Lee was launching his last grand assault at Fort Stedman, shown here a few weeks later. The Confederates suffered about 850 casualties here at the Jones Farm, one of home Pvt. Theldred S. Lay, 35th Georgia Infantry, who was shot in the left leg, captured, and died in a Washington hospital. His grave is in the Confederate section of Arlington National Cemetery.
16. PETBFT_150607_221.JPG: Col. J. Warren Keifer's and Col. James M. Warner's brigades spearheaded the final attack against this portion of the Confederate picket line on March 25, 1865.
17. PETBFT_150607_225.JPG: The same day that fighting was raging all around you at Jones Farm, Lee was launching his last grand assault at Fort Stedman, shown here a few weeks later.
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