The Breakthrough Trail

— Pamplin Historical Park —

"? after going through a leaden and war hail storm, thanks to the God of Battles, I am alive and happy. Our Corps charged the enemy's lines last night, broke their line and drove them out of sight ? I never felt more like fighting than I have today and I kept my shooting iron hot for about an hour and a half, and with prayer all the time. I felt as if I was willing to give my life up freely and I felt assured I would be received in Heaven. The Confederacy is gone up. I lost part of a third finger, right hand. Boys bound it up - am all right and doing well - "
- Sergeant Albert C. Harrison, Company G, 14th New Jersey Infantry Regiment

On the morning of April 2, 1865, Union troops of the Third Division, Sixth Army Corps, attacked the Confederate trenches that ran across the Hart Farm. Brigadier General Truman Seymour commanded the division, which consisted of two brigades commanded by Colonel William Truex and Brevet Brigadier General J. Warren Keifer. Three small Confederate regiments defended the earthworks - the 28th North Carolina of Brigadier General James H. Lane's Brigade and the 11th and 52nd North Carolina of Brigadier General William MacRae's Brigade.

Union soldiers overran the Confederate line at the Boisseau Farm and quickly outflanked the 28th North Carolina, forcing that regiment to retreat toward the Boydton Plank Road. At about the same time, men of Seymour's division began crossing the parapets near the Hart house. A small two-gun battery near Arthur's Swamp and a large six-gun redoubt near Duncan Road, along with all their cannons, fell to the Federals. Most of the soldiers of MacRae's regiments became prisoners of war.

According to family tradition, Mary Hart and an unnamed slave emerged from the house's basement after the fighting had shifted toward the southwest. They tended to a mortally wounded Union officer and buried his body in their garden. Mrs. Hart wrote a letter to the officer's family, who later came to Dinwiddie County to retrieve the remains of their fallen soldier.

"I was shooting at Yanks in front of me where they were thick as black birds. They had broke our line on our left & come on us on our left flank. I had seen them, but thought it was our own men until a Cap't who was in front of his men with sword drawn whacked me over the head twice. Before I realized my situation his men were right at his heels with fixed bayonets."
- Private John C. Warlick, Company I, 11th North Carolina Infantry Regiment

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Show me all markers in:  Petersburg, VA  |  23803  |  Virginia  |  United States of America

The Hart House
The Battle of Harmon Road
"The Cannons' Flashes Lit Up the Terrible Scene"
Sixth Maryland Infantry Monument
"The Strongest Line of Works Ever Constructed"
The Hart Farm
McGowan's South Carolina Brigade
Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield
The Confederate Fortifications
The Attack Begins

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