Petersburg and Hopewell, Virginia

After Don had his last Kung Fu fight with Alex and CJ, (in which they stuffed foam rubber packing material from a Christmas package under their shirts) I snapped a picture of the whole family and we bid goodbye to Colin, Leslie, and the kids in Richmond.

Alex and CJ try to give themselves the advantage over Grandpa with foam padding under their shirts.

Colin, Leslie, Alex and CJ Chapman

Bittersweet Goodbyes.

The weatherman was talking about an ice storm coming up from the south, directly in our path. Since we had no desire to drive icy roads, we went only about an hour and spent a couple days in Petersburg, Virginia.



There is a lot of Civil War history in the Petersburg area, so it was a good place to wait things out. It was also a very educational stop.

Petersburg is the location of the longest siege of the Civil War, lasting for 10 months. The Northern army knew if it could take Petersburg, Richmond would quickly fall and the war would be over. They did not expect it to take more than a few days.

However, as one lady in Petersburg told us, the North did not bargain on how stubborn Petersburg folks were.

It was a bloody battle that killed many local residents in their own homes and yards due to close range shelling. As the battle drug on, the North cut off the five railroads that come into Petersburg, eliminating the ability of the Confederate troops and local residents to get supplies.

As time went on, they told us that pigeons disappeared off the streets, then dogs and cats, finally the rats. People were starving and needed to resort to whatever means available to stay alive.

When Petersburg did finally fall, the North quickly took Richmond and then Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox and the four-year long war that had killed 600,000 soldiers was finally over. (See blog posting, “Appomattox Court House, Virginia.”)

When we were in Old Town Petersburg, we visited the Siege Museum that was in the old Commodities and Exchange Building. The building itself was around 150 years old. We watched a movie there about the Siege that was quite informative.

We also toured the Petersburg Battlefield on a driving tour. It always amazing to me to see the battlefields and realize that during this war, the fighting very often was virtually hand-to-hand in very close quarters.

Barricades in preparation of hand-to-hand combat.

One of the most interesting and rather strange things that happened on the Petersburg Battlefield, was called The Crater.




The North came up with a plan to tunnel under the Confederates battleline with a tunnel, fill it with explosives, and then blow it up. After all, a lot of soldiers had been miners and were familiar with digging tunnels and explosives, so it should work well, right?

So they dug this long tunnel and prepared to fill it with explosives.




However, political correctness came into play even then as it does today. The soldiers with expertise in this type of work were black. What if the plan didn’t work and people got hurt? "It wouldn’t look good if all the casualties were all black, would it?"




So they had the white soldiers, without any experience blowing things up, finish the project. Did no one see the folly of this plan??? Apparently not.

Depression in ground are where there were air vents in the lengthy tunnel.

Crater where the tunnel exploded.

Well, blow, it did…to smithereens, actually, killing and wounding a large number of troops, some Confederates, but mostly the Federal troops. The Northern army was in such shock, they just stood and stared at the scene, which gave the Confederates time to regroup and attack again.




We also drove through Blanford Cemetery, which holds many graves from the Civil War period as well as current burials. It is a very large cemetery.

Blanford Cemetery, graves of Civil War era deceased.

The next day we visited Grant's Headquarters in Hopewell, Virginia, a short distance from Petersburg. It overlooks the confluence of the Appomattox and James Rivers. The property has a house that was occupied by Grant’s chief officer while Grant occupied a very small cabin nearby.

Grant's Chief Officer's House

River View from the House.

Grant's Cabin

It was a damp and foggy day when we were there, hence the foggy-looking pictures. Grant’s cabin is pretty much like it was when he and his family lived there, basically small and sparse.

This and the following pictures are of the inside of Grant's cabin.

Grant's Desk

View from the cabin window of the river.

This is a duplicate of the design Grant had on the window shades.

How often would we see this today, where the number one officer in something as significant as the Civil War would live in a small, very modest dwelling and give the large house to his “assistant?” Hmmm!

The River approaching the property.