The Petersburg Project
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    • About Us
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  • 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

Fort Morton & Baxter Road Group

Picture
Overlay of Michler 4" = 1 mile map (1867) and modern elevation data, noting approximate camera locations. This is an interesting portion of the battlefield that preserves an intact portion of the zig-zag covered ways that fed Union lines fronting The Crater.
Timothy O'Sullivan and his assistant exposed at least seven stereographic images in the vicinity of Fort Morton, Battery XV, and Battery XVI, while parking their wagon on Baxter Road. From the depth of the shadows, it would appear that the images were taken mid-to- late afternoon, date uncertain, but certainly in the first week of April 1865 within a few days of the fall of Petersburg.

The map above is a GIS overlay of the lithographed Michler and Weyss Map of Petersburg and Five Forks (1867) and modern LIDAR data. Fort Morton and Battery XV were leveled after the war by "Old Man Taylor" on whose farm these had been built. Much of Battery XVI was lost to later highway development, but a substantial portion of it survives, including the camera position of one of the photos (01323). The stereographs are presented below (in numerical order according to the Library of Congress digital file number). Links take you to the original images in the Library of Congress collection.

Fort Morton was leveled after the war for agriculture, but its subterranean trace was revealed by recent work conducted by Julie Steele and a team of National Park Service archaeologists. So that visitors can grasp the size and tactical siting of the fort, park maintenance crews have created a "ghost" outline on the ground with crushed oyster shells. No trace of Battery XV remains above ground. O'Sullivan's stereographs are the best evidence we have of the appearance of the landscape in April 1865 and are likely to guide future archaeological prospecting when funding is available.

Fort Morton (2 views from inside the fort)

Picture
00517. Previously unidentified and unattributed view of Fort Morton taken from the northern wall of the fort, looking south. (LC-DIG-cwpb-00517) Two magazines on the right (one topped by the flagpole) were directly behind the front gun wall. William Redish Pywell (O'Sullivan's assistant) is posed in the covered way behind the magazines.
Picture
00518. Previously unidentified and unattributed view of Fort Morton taken from near the sally port, looking south. Timothy O'Sullivan is drinking from a tin cup at the well. (LC-DIG-cwpb-00518)
Picture

Detail from the above image, showing O'Sullivan in the foreground drinking from the well. In the background a horse is harnessed to a supply wagon waiting in Baxter Road. Had the camera been shifted 90 degrees to the west, we would have had a head on view of the Taylor Farm and The Crater as these appeared in April 1865. It would have been a tempting subject. There may have been other exposures from this vicinity that have not survived or been identified.

Picture
William Redish Pywell posed in covered service way LC 00517.
Picture
LC00518 detail. Photographers' horse and wagon harnessed in Baxter Road. O'Sullivan drinking from cup in foreground.
Picture
Schematic of photograph 00518 (above) by Philip Shiman.

Battery XVI looking north toward Fort Morton

Picture
01323. View of covered way leading out of Battery XVI with Fort Morton in the background at right center. (LC-DIG-cwpb-01323). Baxter Road crosses the center of the image and passes through a gap made in the curtain wall to facilitate the forward movement of Union troops. This is the right half of a damaged stereograph.
Picture
Picture
LC 03633. A second variant of the above photograph., Fort Morton in the background. Broken glass plate.
Picture
LC 03633 detail. Closer view of Fort Morton viewed from Battery XVI.

Infantry Line looking south from Battery XVI

Picture
01321. View from the left flank of Battery XVI, looking south along the Union lines. (LC-DIG-cwpb-01321). This is the left half of a stereograph. Note the inclined fraise of sharpened logs and the latrine or "sink" at right center with its log seat.

Battery XV (3 views)

Picture
00529. View of the interior of mortar Battery XV, from the right flank of the battery looking south. (LC-DIG-cwpb-00529) O'Sullivan's assistant, William Pywell, poses at a mortar platform in the middle distance.
Picture
00530. View of the interior of mortar Battery XV, from the right flank of the battery looking south. (LC-DIG-cwpb-00530). The camera position did not change from the previous photo, but after setting up the shot and exposing the first image, O'Sullivan exchanged places with his assistant, William Pywell.
Picture
00533. Labeled "Confederate Fort McGilvery," this image was taken from behind Battery XV (LC-DIG-cwpb-00533). Background and chimneys can be linked with the previous images. Photographer Timothy O'Sullivan poses by the chimney in the mid-ground.

  • Taylor's Farm
  • Fort Morton
  • Sinks
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