Petersburg National Battlefield

This preserved battlefield near Richmond marks the site of a grueling nine-month siege during the closing phase of the American Civil War, from 1864 to 1865. The Union effort to cut the rail lines supplying the Confederate capital drew both armies into long lines of trenches and earthworks that foreshadowed twentieth-century warfare. Visitors can drive a tour route past reconstructed fortifications and the enormous crater left by an underground mine explosion.