Petersburg, Virginia
June 1864–April 1865

For 10 months in 1864 and early 1865, the area around Petersburg, Va., was honeycombed with tunnels and earthworks as Union and Confederate forces created trenches extending as far as 30 miles from the city center. All told, the 18 major battles of the Petersburg Campaign raged over some 23,000 acres and included clashes at Ream's Station, Deep Bottom, Globe Tavern, Peebles' Farm and Hatcher's Run.

The stalemate around Petersburg was finally broken when the vastly outnumbered Confederates, faced with threats to their supply lines, began withdrawing westward. The city of Petersburg fell on April 3, 1865, after the last Southern troops evacuated in the night. Gen. Robert E. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia surrendered six days later at Appomattox Court House.

Threat: The 2006 findings of the federal Base Realignment and Closure commission call for a drastic increase in the size of Fort Lee, a U.S. Army installation located adjacent to the Petersburg National Battlefield. Estimates indicate that the on-base population will increase by 119 percent by 2009 and that about $1 billion will be spent on building upgrades and new construction.

Such incredible growth in such a short time will complicate preservation efforts in Petersburg and Dinwiddie County. Until now, the area had been spared the development pressures facing other Richmond suburbs. Although much important battlefield land remains unprotected, skyrocketing land values could quickly turn property owners away from conservation-minded solutions. The base expansion may also create traffic problems in and around the Park, and threaten the Park's historic buildings, landscape and archeological resources.

Priority: The CWSAC classifications for the Petersburg Campaign range from Priority I through Priority IV.

Please note that no attempt is made to rank the sites within History Under Siege— instead, the battlefields are listed in alphabetical order.