National Battlefields - Virginia

Petersburg National Battlefield

10/4/1997 Drove to Petersburg NB; saw good map display show at visitor center. Walked trail passed different artillery displays to “The Dictator”, a 17,000 pound mortar. Drove the park road, passing battle points and parked at The Crater. Walked a trail to where the Union dug a mineshaft under both lines; walked along the shaft route (collapsed in some places) to where they ignited tons of powder and created a huge crater. [Walks on the battlefield were on the Petersburg Battlefield NRT.]

The park sign

Me and a cannon

The shaft entrance

6/22/2013 Not too far away we stopped at Poplar Grove National Cemetery in Petersburg NB. The cemetery contains remains from all over Virginia, and by 1869 there were reinterred 6,718 remains, of which only 2,139 bodies were positively identified. Not much here in the small cemetery with ground level (flat) markers, so we continued to Five Forks Battlefield NHL. This is the area where, late in the war, Grant's troops broke the extended lines of Lee's forces, cutting the last rail line supporting Petersburg, and undermining the defense of Richmond. The new VC was not open this early, so we just followed an online map I had to the five forks in the road where there was a monument, sign, cannon and NHL plaque – enough for me!

The park sign

Gates to the cemetery

Low headstones

Me on a gazebo

Five Forks

Me by the monuments ...

... and Mom by a cannon