This stereo image has been identified as earthworks at Fort "Steadman." Dr. Shiman has convincingly matched image details with the Army engineers' plan of Battery Ten (X) and cross-referenced these details with other photographs taken in the vicinity. It is clear that the image was taken from the rear of Battery Ten, looking toward the Confederate lines at Colquitt's Salient. When Confederates assaulted this portion of the Union lines before dawn of March 25, they first penetrated Union lines here at Battery Ten and then entered adjacent Fort Stedman. With careful scrutiny, damage from the March 25th fighting can be discovered in this photograph, along with Union efforts to repair the damage in the weeks before the image was taken. In addition, the appearance of Timothy O'Sullivan's assistant "Vest Man" (Wm. Pywell) posed in the doorway of a bombproof is sufficient (by our way of thinking) to attribute this photograph to O'Sullivan. This stereograph was taken roughly at the same time as others in the Fort Stedman series.

LC 00515. "Petersburg, Virginia. Earthworks [Fort Stedman] in front of Petersburg." Battery X adjacent to Fort Stedman. Image by Timothy O'Sullivan (unattributed).

LC 00515 right half of stereo. Dr. Shiman delineates the details found in this photo in the page below.

"The section at the Hare House redoubt was still closer to the enemy, in fact, a stone could have been tossed over the parapet into the rebel rifle-pits. A company of engineers was at work continually to see that the redoubt was not undermined." P559.
​History of the First Light Battery Connecticut Volunteers, 1861-1865.  Herbert W. Beecher.

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NARA photograph, unattributed (likely O'Sullivan), 1865. Beneath the label "Fort Stedman," the fraise was cut away in the March 25th assault.

updated March 2021