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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
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Me and a cannon
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The shaft entrance
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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
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Gates to the cemetery
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Low headstones
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Me on a gazebo
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Five Forks
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Me by the monuments ...
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... and Mom by a cannon
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