Union Stronghold

After four days of unsuccessful trying to capture Petersburg by direct assault on June 15-18, 1864, Gen. U.S. Grant's Union army began siege operations against the city. Grant's immediate objective was to cut one of Gen. Robert E. Lee's supply routes, the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. Moving westward against the rail line in this area June 21-23, Union forces were stopped short of reaching their goal. They were able, though, to extend their trench lines across the Jerusalem Plank Road, now known as Crater Road. To protect this position, construction began on a large earthen structure initially called Fort Warren, Named for Fifth Corps commander, Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren.

One of the Union soldiers assigned to this task recalled: "Covering about three acres of ground, it is capable of holding a brigade?. In building our fort, we dug a trench twenty feet wide and ten feet deep, and threw up the rampart on the inside. The fort was made square with a diagonal through it. We had a magazine in it, and two wells were dug for a water supply?it took eight men to get one shovelful of dirt from the bottom of the ditch to the top of the work, the men standing in little nitches cut in the side of the bank and passing the earth from one to another." The completed fort held a garrison of 550 men with eight field guns.

One July 11, while sitting nearby with the surgeon of the 39th Massachusetts Infantry, Col. P. Stearns Davis of the same unit was mortally wounded by a piece of exploding artillery shell. The fort was then renamed in his honor.

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Show me all markers in:  Petersburg, VA  |  23805  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

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Waiting Their Turn Historical

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