Infantry Earthworks - Petersburg VA
Posted by: 
Don.Morfe
N 37° 13.960 W 077° 21.270
18S E 291130 N 4123280
Re-created here are samples of some of the infantry earthworks that ringed Petersburg – works that one man said made the landscape resemble “an immense prairie dog village.”
Waymark Code: WM133VD
Location: Virginia, United States
Date Posted: 09/09/2020
Views: 0
Infantry Earthworks-Petersburg National Battlefield-- “Attacking entrenchments has been tried so often and with such fearful losses that even the stupidest private now knows that it cannot succeed, and the natural consequence follows; the men will not try it. The very sight of a bank of earth brings them to a dead halt.”
- Col. Charles Wainwright, USA, June 18, 1864
Re-created here are samples of some of the infantry earthworks that ringed Petersburg – works that one man said made the landscape resemble “an immense prairie dog village.”
As the siege wore on, assaults against entrenched positions became rare. Most of the pitched battles at Petersburg took place beyond the flanks of the armies, as the Federals inexorably pushed westward to cut the rail lines and roads into the city.
LOCATION: Marker is on Siege Road, on the left when traveling south. Marker is in Petersburg National Battlefield. It is located at Tour Stop 3.
Visit Instructions:
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