The Siege of Petersburg -1864

The battle and eventual siege of the City of Petersburg,Virginia was the longest single battle in American history. Lasting from June 1864 to April 1865 the two armies, Union and Confederate, faced each other across a no-mans-land of trenches at Petersburg that would come to resemble the battlefield of the Europe some fifty years later.

During the ten month siege there would be six major battles, eleven engagements, fifty skirmishes, six assaults and four expeditions before the Union were able to break the defenses around Petersburg.

US Grant’s modest headquarters at City Point,Va. It was from here in 1864 and 1865 that Grant would issue the orders the would end the Civil War.

Culminating in the Battle of Five Forks, Union troops finally break the defenses around the City in April 1865 – the Confederacy was collapsing…

Click the link below to see the story and images from the first five months of the siege. Together with the battlefield images will be coverage of the reenactment of the Battle of New Market Heights in Henrico County Virginia commemorating the fighting around Petersburg in 1864. In late 2014 and early 2015 I’ll be returning with additional posts on this drawn out battle and further explorations of the Petersburg/Richmond area battlefields.

The Siege of Petersburg