The Petersburg Project
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  • Petersburg Panorama 1865
  • Steeples of Petersburg
  • 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!
    • 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 >
      • Fort Morton and Baxter Road Group
      • Fort Haskell Panorama
      • Fort Stedman Group
      • Gracie's Salient Group
      • Bombproofs behind Fort Haskell
      • Camp of the 50th N. Y. Engineers
    • David Knox, Photographer at Petersburg
    • William Redish Powell, 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
  • Maps and Topogs
    • Grand Medicine Pow-wow
    • Michler's Reports from Topographical Department
    • John E. Weyss, Cartographer
    • William H. Paine, Cartographer
    • Gilbert Thompson
  • Confederate Maps
    • Confederate Defenses 1862
    • Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
    • Stevens Map July 1864
    • Fields of Fire
    • Coit's map of the Crater Battlefield
  • Federal Maps
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 18, 1864, 18th Corps
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 29, 1864. Bermuda Hundred
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • June-July, Undated Federal Engineers Map-
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • Crater, Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • September 13, 1864, Recon Map
    • September 30, 1864, Warren Map
    • October 1864, Two IX Corps Maps
    • Nov. 2, 1864, Army of the Potomac
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • NEW 1865-1867, Manuscript Survey Maps
    • 1864-1867, Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • 1865-1867, Michler Map Series
    • 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
    • Battery 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
    • 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
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • Dimmock Battery 5 Photographs
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • The Great Pontoon Bridge Across James River
  • Appomattox Mill Photographs
  • Campbell Dinwiddie County 1864

FORT SEDGWICK, better  known  as  FORT HELL... and vicinity, early in the  siege.
Grand Medicine Pow-wow
​"The Rebel in the Road"
Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
Priest Cap

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Early version of Fort Hell/Sedgwick as a rectangular redan to the east of Jerusalem Plank Road. Charles Wellington Reed, LC Manuscript Division. Reed's diary and letters make clear that his battery, the 9th Massachusetts, moved into position on the left of the Jerusalem Plank Road on June 24th, "relieving the 6th Maine battery going in to their breastworks" Campbell, "A Grand Terrible Dramma", p233. Reed started his map of the area on June 29 and continued to update it as Fort Warren (eventually named Fort Davis) was not begun until July 6 (Campbell p. 235).
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The barn, in the upper left of the Waud drawing detail above, was still standing at the end of July when the farm house was reduced to "Chimneys".
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Detail from OR Atlas, Plate XLIV.
July 19, Tuesday
The engineers have just traced out an irregular work to be enclosed in a corner of the wood close to the plank road:  it  is within one hundred yards of  the rebel pickets at the Gregory chimneys, and having rather an ugly lookout for them is not likely to be  put up with as little disturbance as the others have (p. 438).

July 21,  Thursday
The new work on the plank road gets on slowly.  I was right in my surmise that the rebels would not like it; they make it so hot for the workmen there that it has already been christened Fort Hell by the men (p. 439).

Colonel Charles S. Wainwright, A Diary of Battle, edited by Allan Nevins,  DaCapo Press, New York,1998
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Detail from map signed by N. Michler dated August 28, Library of Virginia. At the end of August, the future Fort Sedgwick remained a simple redan on the east side of the plank road.
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The end of the war Federal maps show the final configuration of the fort- a Priest's Cap design straddling the Jerusalem Plank Road.
PictureHarper's Weekly, September 17, 1864, William Waud. By mid-September, the fort had been expanded across the road.

Photographs and Drawings of Fort Sedgwick, known as "Fort Hell"

Fort Sedwick "Fort Hell" -- the most photographed and sketched location on the entire Petersburg front.
​
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"Fort Hell. On Genl Warrens line," drawing by Alfred R. Waud. (Library of Congress).
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"Siege of Petersburg: Fort Sedgwick, constructed under the direction of Major J. C. Duane and N. Michler, Corps of Eng'rs. July, September & October 1864."
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LC 12604. "Quarters of Men in Fort Sedgwick." Negative by T. H. O'Sullivan. Positive by A. Gardner. Dated May 1865.
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Panorama of the rear of Fort Sedgwick and adjacent batteries formed by merging two stereo images (00605 and 00606). Although not yet attributed, internal evidence leaves little doubt that these images were taken by Timothy O'Sullivan.
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"Plan of Fort Sedgwick Generally Known As Fort Hell, by W. P. Hopkins, Oct. 20th, 1902." From the Seventh Regiment Rhode Island Volunteers (1903), pg. 230.
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