White Hill Field Quarters Survey, Petersburg National Battlefield

A Search for the White Hill Field Quarters

Petersburg National Historical Park
Petersburg, Virginia

The remains of the White Hill plantation lay just outside of the city of Petersburg Virginia, within the boundaries of the Petersburg National Battlefield. Throughout the nineteenth century, Petersburg served as a busy and important node in Virginia’s growing transportation network. The convergence of several railroad lines at Petersburg made it an important strategic point during the Civil War. It was the site of a months-long siege in 1864-1865.

Just to the northeast of the city, situated on a hill with a commanding view of the town, lay the plantation known as White Hill. During the nineteenth century, members of the Friend family, along with many people they held enslaved, lived on the property. Beginning in 1842, Charles Friend owned the property, operating it through the years of its greatest economic prosperity. An 1857 list shows that Friend enslaved sixty-four people, most of whom likely lived at White Hill.

The main house at White Hill survived the Civil War, only to be demolished later; its foundation, as well as the remnants of ice houses and other service building remain. However, any buildings occupied by the African-Americans who lived and labored on the plantation are no longer visible on the landscape. Historic maps and drawings show the likely location of a one or more houses, or quarters, at the base of the hill, in the flood plain of a nearby creek.

Beginning in 2020, the Northeast Archeology Resource Program (NARP) partnered with the Cultural Resource Staff at Petersburg National Battlefield (PETE) to search for Friend Plantation field quarters. After completing some initial archival research, a team of archeologists from NARP and PETE assisted by volunteers from the Archeological Society of Virginia and nearby universities, began in March to conduct archeological studies at the site.

Employing metal detectors, ground penetrating radar, and soil resistivity, along with controlled shovel test pits, the team sought to combine information about the soils on the site with information about the artifacts they found. Ultimately they hoped to use this information to locate the remains of field quarter buildings on the site and differentiate them from other nearby archeological resources, and then to interpret their findings in order better understand the lives of African-Americans who lived and worked at White Hill.

In 2021, NARP and PETE plan to return to the field, this time to open large areas to excavation on the portion of the site most likely to retain the remains of a field dwelling, in order to exposing buried structures or soil deposits (features) that will help to pinpoint the location of the quarters.

The requested video is no longer available.