Troops in the Siege of Petersburg faced the usual siege armaments — projectiles of all shapes and sizes and attacks on fortifications — but the Union added underground explosives to the mix.
Appomattox Manor served as Union army headquarters during the siege.
Union General Ulysses S. Grant made his headquarters in a cabin on the lawn of Appomattox Manor, the home of Dr. Richard Epps and the oldest home (built in 1763) in what was then City Point but is now Hopewell, Virginia.
In an attempt to break the siege, Union troops mined a tunnel under the Confederate lines and on July 30, 1864, detonated the explosives creating a crater some 135 feet in diameter which remains visible to this day. Some 280 to 350 Confederate soldiers were instantly killed in the blast. Despite the ingenuity of the Union's plan (which had been devised by Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants, a former miner), the lengthy, bloody Battle of the Crater, as it came to be called, was a decisive Confederate victory. The battle was dramatised in the 2003motion pictureCold Mountain.
The colonial town was established by law in 1748. It became a larger town, with greater and more specific powers, with the charter of 1784. It achieved the dignity of cityhood in 1850. Bristol Parish, resulting from increasing population in the area was established in 1643.
In 1733 Colonial William Byrd wrote of founding the towns of Petersburg and Richmond. By 1737 if not earlier, a brick church gave evidence of the locality's coming of age.
Welcome to Petersburg. By clicking on the links below you will be able to take a tour through the years from very beginning to its present day activities. Read and enjoy photos of the great battle re-inactments of the Revolutionary War.
Because of the railroads, Petersburg was the lifeline to Richmond, the Capital of the Confederacy.
Petersburg is a part of the Tri-cities, Virginia regional economy known as the "Appomattox Basin" that includes the counties of Dinwiddie and Prince George, the southern part of Chesterfield County, and the cities of Hopewell and Colonial Heights.
Petersburg is located on the Appomattox River at the fall line, which marks the area where an upland region (continental bedrock) and a coastal plain (coastal alluvia) meet.
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