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| Battery Five |
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Slipping away from the disaster at
Cold Harbor, seeking to outflank Robert E Lee and the Army of Northern
Virginia, Grant sent Meade's Army of the Potomac across the James
River at Windmill Point. Butler's lead elements crossed the
Appomattox River at Broadway Landing, and attacked the Petersburg
defenses here, at Battery Five, June 15, 1864.
Outnumbered, the defenders of Petersburg fell back to a second line
as Lee sent reinforcements in a desperate attempt to keep the city
from capture. The Union troops gained more ground the following
day, but by the 18th of June the defensive works were heavily manned,
and the Federal assaults were repulsed with heavy casualties.
The Union troops began to dig in as well, and the siege began. |
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Battery Five (rear view) today. Click
here to enlarge.
The Confederate parapets, long since obliterated, ran
along to the right. Most of Battery Five was built largely by
slave labor in 1863; when the Union troops took it over they added the
earth wall you see to the left of the pathway.
Battery Five was a four gun battery, with 16 gun
positions. While the original construction was that of a
battery, the addition of the western earth wall facing the Confederate
line by Union troops gives it the appearance of an enclosed fort, but
in the original Dimmock line construction it was intended only as a
battery.
For some reason, there are 5 guns located here at the
moment, and the gun on the far right actually points down behind where
the Confederate lines would have been, a rather unusual placement for
a Confederate cannon. |
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A rare view of the interior of Battery Five, taken a
few days after it's capture on June 15, 1864. Observers standing
on the walls here could easily see the city of Petersburg a couple of
miles away, virtually undefended on the evening of June a5, when
a continued push forward would likely have resulted in the immediate
capture of the city. Click
here to enlarge. |
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How Battery Five looks today, photographed from the
same location, May 28, 2006. Click
here to enlarge
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