The Petersburg Project
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    • About Us
  • Blog and Updates
  • The Crater
  • Petersburg in Pencil and Ink
    • Alfred R. Waud, Special Artist at Petersburg >
      • In Front of Petersburg
      • Waud Drawing of 5th Corps Fortifications
      • Rives Salient ("Fort Mahone")
      • Soldiers' Wells
      • The Mine Explosion
    • William Waud, Special Artist
    • Charles H. Chapin, Special Artist
    • Edwin Forbes, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Joseph Becker, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Edward Mullen, Special Artist at Petersburg
    • Andrew W. Warren, Special Artist
    • Winslow Homer, Special Artist
    • Enlisted Artists >
      • Charles Wellington Reed
      • Andrew McCallum
      • Francis Knowles
      • James William Pattison
      • Herbert Valentine
  • Petersburg Photographs --So Many!
    • Working with Photographs
    • Steeples of Petersburg
    • Petersburg Panorama 1865
    • City Point
    • City Point Wharf Explosion, Aug. 9, 1864
    • Fort Rice?? We don't think so!
    • Federal Picket Line, Jerusalem Plank Road
    • Timothy O'Sullivan, Photographer at Petersburg >
      • O'Sullivan and Vest Man
      • 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
    • John Reekie, Photographer for the Quartermaster Corps
    • Thomas C. Roche, Photographer at Petersburg
    • David Knox, 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
    • June 18, 1864-Federal Engineers Map
    • June 21, 1864, Federal Engineers Map
    • June 22, 1864. Second Corps at Jerusalem Plank Road
    • June 30, 1864 -- XVIII Corps Map
    • Undated Federal Engineers Map--June-July, 1864
    • July 1864 Map of XVIII Corps Lines
    • 18th Corps, June 18, 1864
    • Native American Perspective of the Crater
    • August 28, 1864, Michler Map
    • IX Corps, Peebles and Pegrams Farms Oct. 1864
    • Army of the Potomac, Nov. 2, 1864
    • 1864, Coast Survey Map of Petersburg
    • Army of the Potomac, Routes of the Corps to Petersburg
    • Manuscript Survey, 1865
    • Michler-Weyss, Siege of Petersburg
    • Michler Map Series 1865-1867
    • 1871, Map of Recapture of Ft. Stedman
    • 1881, Boydton Plank Road
  • Confederate Forts and Batteries
    • Dimmock Line >
      • Priest Cap
      • French Rifle Pits
    • Fort Clifton
    • Confederate 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
    • Hare House Hill
  • Battlefield Features
    • Aiken House
    • Avery House
    • Bailey/Johnston Farm
    • Blandford Church
    • Broadway Landing, Appomattox River
    • The Crater
    • Cummings House
    • Dams and Inundations
    • Dunn House
    • Friend House >
      • View from Friend House toward Gibben complex and Petersburg
    • Globe Tavern / Weldon Railroad
    • Gregory House
    • Griffith Farm
    • Gurley House
    • Hare House
    • The "Horseshoe"
    • Jones House
    • Jordan House
    • Pegram's Farm
    • Peebles Farm, Pegrams Farm, Poplar Springs Church
    • Shand House
    • Taylor Farm >
      • The Ice House
      • Surviving Taylor Barn
    • U. S. Engineers at the Williams House
    • 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
  • Encyclopedia
    • Glossary
    • The Battlefields
    • Siege Warfare
    • Union Lines
    • Confederate Lines
    • Combat >
      • June 30, 1864, Attack
      • Combat Entrenching
      • Trench Warfare in Civil War History
      • Chamberlain at Petersburg, June 18, 1864
  • Kittens, Puppies & Ponies
  • Executions!
  • Civil War Combat Trenching
  • Pontoon Bridges
  • Depot Hospital at City Point
  • New: Shot tower

Studying Trench Warfare in the American Civil War

The study of trench warfare 1864-1865 is  the final frontier of Civil War military history.  Nearly every battle and every skirmish from 1861 to 1863 has been minutely examined; historians desperate for new topics to work on have prepared biographies of most of the generals and are now working on the colonels.  A few intrepid historians have tackled the events of the final year and a half of the war, including both campaign studies--the authoritative works of Gordon Rhea come immediately to mind--and battle monographs.  A few, most notably Earl Hess with his trilogy, have delved  into the topic of fortifications on the battlefield.

Yet success has been mixed, and mostly disappointing.  Historians trained in primarily textual sources and used to mentally maneuvering troops like playing pieces on the battlefield have generally been unable to master the complexities and nuances of trench warfare.  The technical barriers alone are significant.  One cannot learn about the rapid evolution of fortification technology by reading a military manual.  Indeed, the most important technology that made trench warfare possible, the "rifle pit" (in its various forms), was not even taught at West Point and did not appear in the standard textbook/manual used by both sides, Dennis Hart Mahan's ubiquitous Field Fortification.  Similarly, the traditional tools of the historian do not reveal the full use of fortifications and the sheer amount of digging that was done.  Reports and personal accounts are incomplete and often garbled; the maps of the battlefield, even those prepared by professional surveyors under peacetime conditions, make mistakes and sometimes leave much out.  The post-war surveys of the siege of Petersburg, the most comprehensive cartographic record available, contain significant inaccuracies and depict a fraction of the military construction performed there.

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"Throwing up earthworks to prevent a night attack," drawing by A R. Waud. [DRWG/US - Waud, no. 211 (A size)]
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