Sept 7, Petersburg and Appamotox

September 7 

 

We took off early for a 3 day get away to tour inland Virginia.  Our first stop was the Petersburg Civil War battlefield.  After months of fighting in the late spring of 1864, Union forces backed Robert E. Lee's Confederate army into defensive lines around Petersburg.  For more than nine months the city endured a siege.  The Petersburg National Battlefield and the Petersburg Siege museum helps tell the story of the soldiers as well as the civilians that were trapped in a city were the supplies were cut off.  At the end of the siege supplies were cut off from this strategic railroad town and the Confederate troops and civilians were starving.

 

Petersburg National Battlefield

 

Battle of the Crater

At 4:40AM on July 30,1864, the Confederate soldiers lay sleeping here at Elliot's salient.  A moment later, this place turned into a smoking hole 170 feet long, 80 feet wide and 30 feet deep. The Union dug a tunnel and set off a blast under the lines of the Confederate soldiers.   270 Confederates died in the blast.  Overall 669 bodies were removed later from the Crater, and the blast was considered a "Stupendous Failure".  The Union troops were in awe and stood at the foot of the crater while the Confederates shot them down.  What a sad day in history.

 

Confederate flags throughout the battle

 

This Confederate Flag flew over the courthouse of Petersburg and was removed when Lee surrendered.
This was the first flag of the Confederacy, but it was changed because of the white background it looked too much like a
surrender flag.

 

 

Appomattox court house, site of Confederate surrender

 

McLean House where Gen Robert E. Lee surrendered to Lt. Gen Ulysses S. Grant in the parlor on April 9, 1865.

 

 

Old bath tub

 

 

Parlor where the surrender papers were signed. The Generals sat at different tables and Grant did not

request Lee to surender his sword.