Petersburg National Battlefield
The nine-month siege that broke Lee's army, with trenches, the Crater and City Point, 25 miles south of the city.
- Open
- Grounds every day; check nps.gov/pete
- Price
- Free
- Time Needed
- 2 hours
- Address
- 5001 Siege Rd, Petersburg, VA 23803Google MapsApple Maps
- Getting There
- About 30 minutes by car south of Richmond.
Why Go
From June 1864 to April 1865, Grant's army pushed around Petersburg in the longest siege of the war, and its trenches foreshadowed World War I. At the Crater, Union miners blew a huge hole in the Confederate line, and the disastrous attack that followed cost hundreds of Black soldiers their lives.
When Petersburg fell, Richmond fell with it, and Appomattox came a week later. Richmond's own battlefields, like Cold Harbor and Gaines' Mill, are close by.
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