The Siege of Petersburg
Yesterday Bill and I decided to head down to Petersburg, Virginia to visit the Civil War battlefield there. It was quite the sight to see. Petersburg was one of the Confederate army’s main supply depots, so the Union army had good reason to want to ‘remove them from the picture.’ So they essentially ‘laid siege’ on them for nearly a year.
The main attractions were the earthworks,
big mounds of dirt thrown up to stop bullets and cannonballs. Every
Union or Confederate fort or cannon battery was surrounded by them,
with dips here and there to stick cannons through. They’re kind of hard
to capture in a picture, so just imagine a bunch hills up to 6 feet
high with cannons sticking out every so often.
Speaking of cannons, here are some examples of Civil War cannons.
The biggest of the cannons pictured could lob a 30-pound ball more than
6000 yards.
One of the first sights we saw was The Dictator, a civil
war mortar that tossed 13 inch, 225 pound exploding shells up to two
miles. During the siege of Petersburg, it sent 218 rounds into the
city, causing some damage but overall being of little practical value.
The mortar pictured above is a replica; click here for a picture of the original.
This is a picket line, designed to alert the soldiers in the trench when the enemy was coming in.
One of the many trails we walked down.
Step 1. Dig tunnel under Confederate lines
Step 2. Set large explosive to explode underneath them
Step 3. Run out into the crater and take over the battery.
Step 4. Run for your lives when the Confederates take back the position after an hour of fighting.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Siege of Petersburg, visit the Siege of Petersburg page at CivilWarAlbum.com.