• Poplar Grove National Cemetery Luminary Event (photo courtesy of Joanne Williams)

    Petersburg

    National Battlefield Virginia

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  • Time Change for Today's Corling's Corner Program

    The time for today's (June 14) Corling's Corner event has been changed from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm. This program focuses on the slave trade in Petersburg and occurs at the corner of Sycamore and Bank Streets.

The Crater

CraterPreludeNPSMap[1]

PNB

Prelude


After the initial attacks on Petersburg by Union forces ended on June 18, a portion of the IX Corps picket line, built under fire, was established only four hundred feet from Elliot's Salient, part of the main Confederate line. The Federals decided to construct and explode a mine underneath the salient in an attempt to surprise and overwhelm the Confederates and seize the heights above Petersburg and thereby shorten the siege.



 
Crater5amNPSMap[1]

PNB

5:00 am

After several weeks of preparation the mine was exploded on July 30 at 4:45am. The Union sent unit after unit into the 200 foot-wide gap created in the Confederate line.The poorly-led Federal soldiers end up heading into the crater and not around it as planned.



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Did You Know?

Bobcat

Bobcats are rarely seen residents of Petersburg National Battlefield's Five Forks Unit. Averaging in size to twice that of the common house cat, Bobcats enjoy the widest North American habitat range of any wildcat. At Five Forks their diet consists mainly of mice, squirrels, and other small prey.