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This is a rear view of Parker's Battery, looking
out over the Howlett (Confederate) Line towards the Union
Line. This was a four cannon battery. Cannon would
have been placed at the depression on the left, near the tree
stump on the right, and flanking the tree in the center. Of
course, none of these trees were here when Parker's battery was in
operation in 1864. And yes, Parker's Battery is built more
like a fort, with a rear earthwork visible in the
foreground. Technically, a battery in the Civil War didn't
have a rear wall, only forts did, but Parker's men were here for a
long time, without much to do, so adding a rear wall to their
battery is not much of a shock.
I've got a warm spot for Parker's Battery, I
discovered this location by accident before I began documenting
battlefields, and it was very close to where I was living, so I
thought of it has kinda the hometown team. Then when I was
photographing the battlefield at Fredericksburg I discovered by
accident the location of Parker's Battery on Marye's Heights, and
now I keep an eye out to see what Parker and his men are doing at
each battle. They keep showing up, and I see them like an
old friend in unexpected places across Virginia. |
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| This is a detail from the Park's information
board about Parker's Battery, and I've numbered key points in this
plan to correspond with their current locations in the picture
below. |
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| Points 1 and 2 are cannon locations, and point 3
shows you where the earthworks ran off to the right. Points
4 and 5 were likely bombproofs, and part of the rear wall of the
battery, where as point 6 shows you roughly where a covered trench
(not visible here) goes forward from the ditch in front of the
battery. This trench leads to additional infantry earthworks
in front of the battery, and down lower on the ridge. |
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| Another view of Parker's Battery from virtually
the same position, just backed up slightly to let you see the full
rear wall, at the cost of slightly obscuring the bombproofs and
the interior of the Battery. The current path runs inside
this rear wall. Click
here for the big version of this picture, it really makes
it much easier to see the structures than the small thumbnail
above. On the far right you can actually see the location of
the access to the covered passageway as well. |
| Parkers
Battery - Click Here to Begin
Note - all of these pictures were taken
without walking on any of the earthworks.
You can move around a lot of these civil war earthworks
without actually walking on them in many places. It may mean
cutting through some brush or going a long way around, but never,
never walk on any Civil War earthworks. Over time it breaks
them down, and they are irreplaceable.
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