Siege of Petersburg

The "Dictator" siege mortar at Petersburg. In the foreground, the figure on the right is Brig. Gen. Henry J. Hunt, chief of artillery of the Army of the Potomac.

Fredericksburg, Virginia; May 1863. Soldiers in the trenches. Trench warfare would appear again more infamously in World War I

Siege of Petersburg, assaults on June 15–18

Siege of Petersburg, movements against the railroads and A.P. Hill's counterattack, June 21–22

"Dictator" siege mortar on the U.S. Military Railroad at Petersburg

Siege of Petersburg, Battle of the Crater, July 30

Sketch of the explosion seen from the Union line.

Second Battle of Deep Bottom, August 14–20

Siege of Petersburg, capture of the Weldon Railroad, August 18–19

Siege of Petersburg, actions on October 27

Siege of Petersburg, actions preceding Five Forks

Grant's final assaults and Lee's retreat (start of the Appomattox Campaign)

<center>Brig. Gen. James H. Wilson</center>

<center>Brig. Gen. August Kautz</center>

Fascine Trench Breastworks, Petersburg, Va. – NARA – 524792. Although identified as Confederate Trenches this is actually Union Fort Sedgwick aka "Fort Hell" which was opposite Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damnation"<ref>Civil War talk Forum</ref>

Union Army 9th Corps attacking Fort Mahone aka "Fort Damanation" sketch by Alfred Ward.

Confederate artilleryman killed during the final Union assault against the trenches at Petersburg. Photo by Thomas C. Roche, April 3, 1865.<ref>Frassanito, p. 360.</ref><ref>See website Petersburg Project on location of Many of the Roche photographs at Petersburg April 1865</ref> Although prints of this picture list it as being taken at Ft Mahone, historians at the "Petersburg Project" believe it was taken at Confederate Battery 25<ref>Dead Artilleryman comments Petersburg Project</ref>

Smoke is still rising from the ruins of Richmond, Virginia after surrendering on April 3, 1865 following the Union victory at the siege of Petersburg. Union cavalry mounts with carbines visible are hitched in the foreground.

Series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865, during the American Civil War.

- Siege of Petersburg

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James Longstreet

One of the foremost Confederate generals of the American Civil War and the principal subordinate to General Robert E. Lee, who called him his "Old War Horse".

August 30, 4 p.m.: Start of Longstreet's attack

Longstreet at Gettysburg c. undefined 1900

Longstreet's Left Wing assaults, mid-day September 20

James Longstreet in later life (1896), affecting the sideburns of his opponent at Fredericksburg and Knoxville

Equestrian statue of General Longstreet on his horse Hero in Pitzer Woods at Gettysburg National Military Park

He later returned to the field, serving under Lee in the Siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign.

John Gibbon

Career United States Army officer who fought in the American Civil War and the Indian Wars.

Gibbon (right), with his II corps commander Hancock (sitting) and fellow division commanders Barlow (left) and Birney (center standing) during the Wilderness campaign

Gibbon (far left) at Lee's surrender at Appomattox (Zoom)

John Gibbon's grave at Arlington National Cemetery

During the subsequent Siege of Petersburg campaign (June 1864 to April 1865), Gibbon became disheartened when his troops refused to fight at Ream's Station in August 1864.

The United States Colored Troops (USCT) were regiments in the United States Army composed primarily of African-American (colored) soldiers, although members of other minority groups also served within the units.

USCT soldiers at an abandoned farmhouse in Dutch Gap, Virginia, 1864

Colored Troops singing "John Brown's Body" as they marched into Charleston, South Carolina, in February 1865. Note the attitude of the local population, and the white officers.

Union soldier in uniform with family; he has been identified as Sgt. Samuel Smith of the 119th USCT

Escaped slave, Gordon (also called "Whipped Peter"), in USCT uniform

Captain Francis Jackson Meriam, 3rd South Carolina Colored Infantry

U.S. Colored Troops medal issued by General Benjamin Butler

African-American corporal (United States Colored Troops)outside 8 Whitehall Street, Atlanta, a slave auction house; Fall 1864

Printed broadside, calling all men of color to arms, 1863

Sgt Major Christian Fleetwood. Civil War, Medal of Honor recipient

Harriet Tubman with family and ex-slaves; sitting at left is Tubmans 2nd husband Nelson Davis (8th USCT veteran)

The most famous USCT action took place at the Battle of the Crater during the Siege of Petersburg.

X Corps (Union Army)

Corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War.

It served during operations in South Carolina in the Department of the South, and later in Benjamin Butler's Army of the James, during the Bermuda Hundred and Petersburg Campaigns.

Valley campaigns of 1864

The Valley campaigns of 1864 began as operations initiated by Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant and resulting battles that took place in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia during the American Civil War from May to October 1864.

Shenandoah Valley operations, May–July 1864

The ruins of the Virginia Military Institute after Hunter's Raid in 1864.

Shenandoah Valley operations, August–October 1864

After his missions of neutralizing Early and suppressing the Valley's military-related economy, Sheridan returned to assist Grant at Petersburg.

Ambrose Burnside

American army officer and politician who became a senior Union general in the Civil War and three times Governor of Rhode Island, as well as being a successful inventor and industrialist.

Burnside (seated, center) and officers of the 1st Rhode Island at Camp Sprague, Rhode Island, 1861

Engraving of General Burnside in full dress uniform

Burnside's grave in Swan Point Cemetery, Providence, Rhode Island

Studio photograph of Gen. Ambrose Burnside taken sometime between 1860 and 1862. Photograph shows his unusual sideburns.

Equestrian monument in Burnside Park, Providence, Rhode Island.

After North Anna and Cold Harbor, he took his place in the siege lines at Petersburg.

P. G. T. Beauregard

Confederate general officer of Louisiana Creole descent who started the American Civil War by leading the attack on Fort Sumter on April 12, 1861.

Pierre G. T. Beauregard as a young man, painting by Richard Clague

The Battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847

The Battle of Chapultepec, 13 September, 1847

The 1861 George Peter Alexander Healy portrait of Beauregard in the National Portrait Gallery, Washington

Confederate General P. Gustave Toutant Beauregard

The Battle of Fort Sumter, April 12–13, 1861

The Battle of First Manassas, July 21, 1861

Map of the Battle of Shiloh, afternoon of April 6, 1862, after Beauregard took command

The Battle of Cold Harbor, May 31 – June 12, 1864

Beauregard's defense of Petersburg, Federal assaults of June 15–18

The Battle of Nashville, December 15–16, 1864

Beauregard revolutionized New Orleans with his cable cars

The White League, a Democratic white supremacist paramilitary terrorist organization

The White League barricading a New Orleans road

The first African-American and Republican governor of Louisiana, Pinckney Pinchback of Georgia

The Battle of Liberty Place, September 14, 1874

Caesar Antoine, a Louisiana Creole and Republican lieutenant governor of Louisiana

General P.G.T. Beauregard Equestrian Statue in New Orleans (2008) by sculptor Alexander Doyle

Beauregard continued commanding the defenses of Petersburg in the early days of the siege, but with the loss of the Weldon Railroad in the Battle of Globe Tavern (August 18–21), he was criticized for not attacking more forcefully and he became dissatisfied with the command arrangements under Lee.

Siege of Petersburg

James Longstreet

John Gibbon

United States Colored Troops

X Corps (Union Army)

Valley campaigns of 1864

Ambrose Burnside

P. G. T. Beauregard

Battle of Spotsylvania Court House

Richmond and Petersburg Railroad

Bermuda Hundred campaign