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

Confederate States Leadworks

The C.S.A. Leadworks at Petersburg were constructed by Josiah Gorgas, head of the Ordnance Bureau, in summer 1862 in order to provide a vital material for small arms and artillery ammunition.  Gorgas, a West Point graduate from  Pennsylvania, used his pre-war experiences at U.S. arsenals to develop this new smelting capacity for the South.

The works were located near the Weldon Rail Road and Halifax Road southwest of the city.  Lead ore was transported to Petersburg via rail and lead ingots sent to Richmond,also via rail (Henderson 1998: 56; Greene 2006: 87-88). 

During the siege,  Confederate troops were urged to collect expended ammunition, which was collected and presumably sent to the leadworks to be recycled, as in the example below: 
                                                                                                                          HEADQUARTERS JOHNSON'S DIVISION,
​                                                                                                                                                                        July 19. 1864.
​...General Gracie's brigade collected 1,000 shells and solid shot yesterday, together with 350 or 400 pounds of lead; the other commands were also engaged in the same manner but have not yet forwarded detailed reports.... (OR XL, Part I, 782).

Petersburg in the Civil War, William D. Henderson, H.E. Howard, Lynchburg, VA., 1998.  Civil War Petersburg, A. Wilson Greene, University of Virginia Press, Charlottesville, VA, 2006.
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The lead works were outside of the original Dimmock Line as shown on the 1863 Gilmer map above (the original map was not oriented north-this has been  corrected).  By the end of the war, the important industrial facility was protected by strong works . ​Detail from Confederate "Map of the Approaches to Petersburg and their Defenses," Gilmer, 1863. [Official Atlas, plate 40:1]

PictureNARA, College Park, Michler Sheet 11. By 1864-65 the lead works were protected by an exterior line of fortifications that ran from Battery 38 to Fort Lee. The new line encompassed the Fisher house "Breezy Hill."
Letter of Charles Wellington Reed to his sister:
Qtrs. 5th Army Corps
Hatchers Run near Petersburg, Va
March 8th, 1865
Dear Sister Em,
…I accompanied one of the boys of the Signal Station a short time ago and climbing the tree was amply repaid for my pains by a glorious view of the enemy’s line and country southwest of Petersburg.  I took a sketch of a portion of their works taking in their famous lead works, with the aid of a powerful telescope which brought the objects out as plain as if I were standing within fifty yards of them….(p. 308).
​

Rare Books and Special Collections, Princeton University Library as published in "A Grand Terrible Dramma": From Gettysburg to Petersburg: The Civil War Letof Charles Wellington Reed, edited by Eric Campbell, Fordham University Press, 2000.

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Detail from Charles Wellington Reed drawing, captioned, "Lead Works South West of Petersburg, inside reb lines". Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.
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USAHEC Mass. MOLLUS collection, vol. 6, no. 292. Labeled "Fort Sedgwick." "Lead Works" was written in the margin above the chimneys on the horizon. Photograph was taken from Confederate Battery 34, looking west by north.
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Detail of photograph taken from the Peebles Farm Signal Tower, spring 1865, with buildings and stacks of the C.S.A. Leadworks in the distance. Library of Congress, cw04090.

Map Error

Gilmer-Campbell Maps, 1864
​
It was the middle of a war and you would think it was important to know the location of a government facility that supplied the war effort; however, the series of four versions of a map of the "Vicinity of Petersburg" from the Chief Engineers Office, Department of Northern Virginia, prepared in 1864, place the leadworks about a half mile east of its actual location on the Weldon Railroad
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Detail, retrieved from the Library of Congress .
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