The Petersburg Project
  • Home
    • About Us
  • Blog and Updates
  • Postwar Visit to the Battlefields 1866
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Views of the City of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • Steeples of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Mill Photographs
  • The Mine Explosion and its Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
      • Howard A. Camp
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Dimmock Battery 5 Photographs >
      • Working with Photographs
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Egbert Guy Fowx, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • Harrison's Creek USCT Camps
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama and Bomb Proofs
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • William Redish Pywell, Photographer at Petersburg
    • John Reekie, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • Andrew J. Russell, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
  • U. S. Military Railroad
    • Terminus of Military R. R. at City Point
    • City Point to Clark's Station
    • Pitkin's Station to Shooting Hill
    • Hancock's Junction/Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Parke's Station
    • Warren's Station
    • Patrick's Station
  • Topographical Engineers -- Our Heroes
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
    • Albert Hanry Campbell, C.S.A. Cartographer
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Campbell Dinwiddie County 1864
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • June 9 1864, Kautz Attack
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Maps
    • June 18, 1864, 18th Corps
    • June 19, 1864, Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Maps
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 29, 1864. Dept of VA and NC
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • June-July, Undated Federal Engineers Map-
    • July 29, 1864, Engineers Map, Annotated
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • Crater, Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 1864, Michie Map - Bermuda 100
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • Aug.-Nov. 1864 Two Base Maps
    • September 13, 1864, Recon Map
    • Sept. 13-Oct.25 versions. Redoubts and Batteries
    • September 30, 1864, Warren Map
    • October 1864, Two IX Corps Maps
    • October 20, 1864. Benham's map of defenses of City Point
    • Nov. 2, 1864, Army of the Potomac
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1864-1867, Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • 1865-1867, Manuscript Survey Maps
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • "Fort Mahone" CS Batteries 25 & 27
    • Confederate 8-inch Columbiad
    • Leadworks
  • Federal Forts and Batteries
    • Union Battery Ten (X)
    • Fort Alexander Hayes
    • Fort Avery
    • Fort Conahey
    • Fort Davis & Battery XXII
    • Fort Fisher
    • Fort Meikel --Photographic Views
    • Fort Morton
    • Fort Patrick Kelly
    • Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell,
    • Fort Wadsworth -- the Evolution
    • Fort Willcox or Battery XVI
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Armstrong's Mill
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • WW Davis Farm
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Gibbons Properties
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House Hill
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Newmarket Racecourse
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shands House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • Williams House
  • Signal Towers and Trees
    • Some Operations of the Signal Corps at Petersburg
  • Archeology
    • Geology of the Crater
    • Fieldwork -- Petersburg
    • Civil War Sinks
    • Deserted Confederate Camp
    • Gracie's Countermine
    • LIDAR Forts and Batteries
  • Articles, Papers, Presentations
    • Shiman: A Note on Maps
    • The Siege Landscape: Through Fire and Ice at Petersburg
    • "The Rebel in the Road"
    • "A Strange Sort of Warfare Underground"
    • Lost Trenches of Petersburg: June 17
    • Between the Lines
    • Combat Trenching: An Introduction
    • Lowe -- Post-War Topographical Survey
    • Civil War Maps and Landscapes -- Observations
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Notes on Leveled Earthworks
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • The Great Pontoon Bridge Across James River
  • Captain Robert Davis CSA

Petersburg Project "Hidden in Plain Sight" Tour April 20, 2024

4/22/2024

1 Comment

 
This past Saturday the Petersburg Project (Julie, Phil, David) conducted a tour of lesser known sites within the main Eastern Front unit of the park. This was a fund-raiser for the park's official friends group, the Petersburg Battlefield Foundation.  34 folks signed on, the weather cooperated, as we visited some 30 locations captured in historic photographs and drawings. The tour was aptly named "Hidden in Plain Sight." Thanks to the PBF for pulling things together and to everyone who turned out. It was a great time. And we plan to do other events in the future.
Picture
1 Comment

Petersburg Project

8/24/2022

7 Comments

 
Greetings. Since our last update here. Julia Steele and David Lowe have retired from the National Park Service and if anything here conflicts with NPS policies, then we officially no longer care. We all had a good ride. It is time for the youngsters to take over. Our colleague, Dr. Philip Shiman is still working full-time (poor soul) for the US Defense Department in a classified position. He doesn't talk to us much, but when he does, we listen. We will continue to contribute to the Petersburg Project and hope to bring others on board as contributors. We appreciate all of our visitors. Together, we are putting the Siege of Richmond and Petersburg on the map where it belongs--the longest continuous battle of the American Civil War and where modern trench warfare originated. Thanks, David, Julie, and Phil.
7 Comments

The William Jones House on Jerusalem Plank Road

11/5/2020

1 Comment

 
Stimulated by a photo posted by the Garry Adelman's Civil War Page. The Petersburg Project delved into the location of a mystery house and found the house! The William Jones house on Jerusalem Plank Road is on the market for a cool $half million. Please see the updated Jones House page under Battlefield Features. Here is a link to Garry's post -- ​https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=3364854650235223&id=178968718823848
1 Comment

"Vestman" Identified!

11/6/2019

1 Comment

 
Craig Heberton, of the Center for Civil War Photography, tells us that the person seen in many of the Petersburg photographs attributed to Timothy O'Sullivan was his brother-in-law and fellow photographer, William Pywell https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Pywell.  Keep it in the family!  Craig will publish more on this.
O'Sullivan and Vest Man
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Lucky Dog Accompanies Master in the Battle of the Crater

10/13/2019

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Lucky is a relative concept, but this dog apparently made it out alive.  Its story will be added to the Kittens, Puppies and Ponies page:

...We gather in a little band of thirty or forty around our colonel. What is next to be done? Over yonder near the old barn they are getting a new battery into position to enfilade us. It is a part of Lee's forces that have just got back from the right. Comrades Billy Gates, Bob Hamilton, and myself, form ourselves into sharp-shooters, and try to pick off the gunners. Bob's little yellow dog has come into the fight with him, and is jumping around, yelling and barking, as if fully alive to the importance of the situation.  Suddenly a yip and a yell tells us the dog is hit. Bob drops his rifle, grabs and hurriedly examines the dog. A ball has skipped across his back and burnt off the hair, that is all (pp. 288-289).
​
Forty-six months with the Fourth R. I. volunteers, in the war of 1861 to 1865 Corp. Geo. H. Allen, of Company B.  1887.


0 Comments

The elusive Fort Davis

10/6/2019

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Picture

Fort Davis isn't really elusive- it's big and it still exists- but until now there was only one photograph of it identified.  It is beautifully captured in the background of LC 02607 and LC 02608.  If interested, download the tif version from the LC website for a more high definition view, which is clear enough to show ladders at the base of a signal tree.  The rectangular patterns in the grass- tent sites?  
Fort Davis & Battery XXII
Fort Sedgwick, better known as Fort Hell
​


0 Comments

Dead Confederate Artilleryman

10/1/2019

7 Comments

 
Speaking of finding places on Petersberg Project...in regard to story "The rebel in the Road"....could these pictures have been taken nearby?
https://www.loc.gov/item/2011649987/
https://www.loc.gov/item/2012647828/
Three photos were taken of this unfortunate soldier struck with a piece of shrapnel between the eyes. Not near the Jerusalem Plank Road picket line photos. Current thinking puts these three photos nearer to Confederate Battery 25..
7 Comments

Informative Post by Library of Congress Librarian Ryan Moore

8/7/2019

3 Comments

 
We appreciate this post on the blog of Ryan Moore at the Library of Congress Map Division- https://blogs.loc.gov/maps/2019/06/map-helps-uncover-civil-war-battlefield-tunnels-at-petersburg-virginia/.  The map that was key to our discovery of the location  Confederate tunnels is beautifully described by Moore and is a stunning example of the cartographer's art and science.  
3 Comments

Implementing a zoom function for maps

5/9/2018

1 Comment

 
A handy app makes it possible to offer a zoom function for historic maps and photos. We will eventually incorporate this function for earlier pages. See June 18, Federal Maps. Let us know what you think.
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Please view Dr. Shiman's animation of Progressive Entrenching

4/12/2018

0 Comments

 
This is an accurate and entertaining depiction of how forces entrenched in the last year of the war. These skills learned by the soldiers in combat changed the face of the Civil War battlefield. Ear buds are suggested.

Progressive Entrenching
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