The national battlefield covers the are occupied by the siege forces, and extends to cover parts of the action associated with Lee's retreat in early April, 1865, as far west as the Five Forks Battlefield.  Another 80 miles west is Appomattox.  Grant during the Overland Campaign had been systematically stringing-out and starving Lee's army, making Lee defend both Petersburg and Richmond, and severing Lee's access to the many roads and five railroads in the area.  Grant also outlasted Lee, even though the former lost 42,000 casualties and the latter lost 28,000 casualties during the siege.  "If duration and endurance are the prime measurements of sacrifice, then Petersburg is indeed the most hallowed of ground."  Today's driving tour visits several of the forts and batteries.  

 

Seeing the legendary Crater site was fascinating.  A group of Federals, coal miners from the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, tunneled under a Confederate battery and created a mine with four tons of gunpowder.  On July 30, 1864, the Federals detonated this mine, throwing the battery, the dirt, and a few hundred soldiers into the early morning air.  The Union created quite a disturbance, but they lost the ensuing fight.  The tunnel remains today, but we cannot crawl through it.  Reading about it is one thing, but it is surprising to see how close in proximity the forces were situated in those operations; a comfortable 511 feet seems like rock throwing distance for skirmishers.  I was surprised to learn that the Confederates had suspected a tunneling operation, and had started two "listening" tunnels of their own, only a few yards from intersecting the real thing.  

 

There isn't much to see at Five Forks, but one can glean its importance to transportation.  Grant sent Sheridan on March 29 to sever the southern supply route, both roads and railroad into Petersburg.  Lee sent Pickett to counter, but was greatly outnumbered.  Grant followed the next day with a renewed attack on Petersburg, and Lee knew then he had to evacuate.  Grant pursued Lee for a week, leading to surrounding Lee's army and cutting off supplies at Appomattox.  Lee had little choice but to "die a thousand deaths" and surrender to Grant.  

 

I years ago had heard that the differing rail gauges between north and south were significant in influencing events during the war.  But in the past year and a half of reading about this, I have found only one instance where it seemed to matter -- and that only for a day or two if at all.  During Lee's retreat, in order to conduct a sustained pursuit with supply trains, Grant's engineers had to lift one rail of the South Side tracks and move it four inches to suit the federal rolling stock.  This they seemed to so efficiently that, while certainly imposing a burden and delay, it did not in fact seem significant in the results.  There are so many examples of captured trains that it seems the best way to solve the gauge difference was to steal the appropriate stock.

 

One disappointment presents itself at each site here, especially on the Eastern Front.  Earthworks and artillery remain, but there are no fortress structures.  There were during the war dozens of important forts within this battlefield, but we are left today to imagine their outline.  The structures almost certainly were destroyed at some point, but nonetheless simple reconstructions would be rather straightforward and highly educational.