A Post-War Visit to the Battlefield by "Junior"
The Collegian (The Harvard Advocate) vol. 1, no. 1, March 9, 1866
PETERSBURG.
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The roads were in a miserable condition, made of nothing more substantial than red Virginia mud, and awfully gullied. Our vehicle was rather rickety too; and black Bob, in his U. S. overcoat (all the darkeys wear army blue), drove his cattle at the inspiriting rate of three miles an hour.. About a mile and a half from the hotel, we came to the first picket-lines, — mere ditches, with the earth thrown up toward the enemy; next, to the Union works, protected by an abatis; and, turning out of the main road to the right, we drove up to Fort Steadman. As I suppose that few of my readers have visited the South since the war, I will take the liberty to describe a fort before Petersburg.
The outer wall is composed of earth, thrown up against a backing of logs stuck endwise in the ground. Thus, the interior of the fort is surrounded, as it were, by a log fence, with earth heaped against it on the outside. In this wall are embrasures for cannon. Outside the wall is a ditch, which, at Fort Steadman at least, can be easily leaped. About thirty feet beyond the ditch is an abatis, constructed in the following manner. Long, heavy logs are supported at about two and a half feet from the ground. Stout, sharp poles are rested upon the logs, with their upper end pointing outward. The lower ends are then covered with earth, and the poles are fastened to the logs with strong telegraph wire. A man advancing against the fort has to climb over or break through this line of sharp poles about three inches apart, sticking out like a line of bayonets.
The space inside the fort is chiefly occupied by bomb-proofs and magazines. The bomb-proofs are log cabins covered with earth. There is a door, turned away from the enemy, and generally a chimney. These shanties are about eight feet square, and ten or twelve men used to live in one of them. Charming places they must have been to spend the winter in.
The magazines are large bomb-proofs, covered very thickly with earth. They had particularly small doors, which are now generally blocked up.
LC 00531 detail. Man posed by bombproof at entrance of Fort Stedman.
From Fort Steadman we ran over to Fort Harris [Fort Haskell], — a little square fort on the next hill. Here we found a fire, made by a black boy and girl, who were digging for lead. Bullets are so thick in the battle-fields, that the negroes dig them up, and sell them. This is quite a lucrative business, as they can pick up twenty pounds of lead a day : " And you can always get the money for it too," said one man to me, " while the men that hire you won't always pay."
While we were warming ourselves at the fire, I asked the black girl about the bombardment. She had a soft, pleasant voice, as most of the negroes have, and was ready enough to answer questions. The siege lasted for eighteen months, she said (all the negroes seem to have vague ideas as to the duration of the siege) ; and, for three months, they used to shell the city three times a day, at six in the morning, twelve o'clock, and four in the afternoon, — about the time for breakfast, dinner, and supper. Ladies used to go out on a hill in Petersburg to watch the firing at first; but the Union soldiers threw some shells in among them, and scattered them. It must have seemed hard luck, not to be allowed to walk out of an afternoon to see your own house knocked down. I asked the girl if many people in the town were killed by the shells. She said that only two white men were hurt, but some "right smart colored folks." All the white people went out of the city as soon as possible, and left the blacks to look after the houses.
We went back to our carriage at Fort Steadman. A negro family live in one of the old bomb-proofs there. The children came running out to sell us bullets as mementos; and the father exhibited a skull which he had picked up in the neighboring meadow, and which he proposed to sell to some surgeon. Such relics as this are fearfully common in the old Petersburg cornfields.
LC 01326 detail. "[Petersburg, Virginia. Fort Haskell]." View of Interior of Fort Haskell
We drove a mile or so farther to see Burnside's mine, — the Crater, as the neighbors call it. The whole face of the country is cut up with earthworks. We went into the shanty of a man who keeps a small refreshment saloon near the Crater. He owns the land, and before the war he lived in a large house, and was a rich man. He had served in the Confederate army, was captured on the Weldon Railroad about six months before the end of the war, and was in Petersburg, on parole, at the time of the evacuation. He said he was glad the war was over, since it was to turn out as it did; and he thought that almost everybody about there was glad to see the end of it. In speaking of the works, he said that he had never lifted a spadeful of earth in his life: he had belonged to the cavalry; and, when his company were ordered to dig, they were allowed to send blacks as substitutes. I noticed his hands, which were handsome and delicate. Though poorly dressed, he had quite the manners of a gentleman, and refused to take money.
His younger brother showed us the Crater. It burst directly under one of the rebel works. Lee was told by deserters that the Union troops were digging this mine, and sank a well to find it, which came within three feet of the Federal gallery. The picket-lines at this place are only a few yards apart. The boy told us that the soldiers would sometimes make a rush from their own lines, and capture the enemy's pickets. The Confederates were most given to this, as they were on half rations. One night, seventy-five of them ran over, and, on reaching the Union lines, resolved to stay.
Fort Steadman is not far from the Crater, although we had made a long circuit in coming from it. Our Confederate friend told us how the fort was surprised one night by the rebels, who took the Union brigadier-general in his bed. But the re-enforcements which should have left Petersburg at midnight did not start until three in the morning, and the Confederates were unable to hold the position.
"Fortifications on the Petersburg lines," a view of the Crater taken at the end of the war [LOT 4166-E, no. 29]. Photographer unidentified.
From the Crater we drove to Fort Damnation, the only rebel fort that we visited. The bomb-proofs were larger and less numerous than those in the Union forts, and looked less comfortable. Opposite Fort Damnation is Fort Hell (Union). This is a large fort, and finely built, a great many fascines being used in its construction. Fascines are till baskets without bottoms, made to hold earth. They are generally used to finish off the sides of embrasures for cannon.
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LC 92591. "Petersburg, Virginia. Fort Sedgwick. [Fort Hell] Gabions heightened by sand bags."
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