Petersburg, Virginia, became the setting for the longest siege in American history when General Ulysses S. Grant failed to capture
Richmond in the spring of 1864. The 2,700-acre Petersburg National Battlefield was established to preserve the battlefields where 10 months of trench warfare sapped the strength of General Robert E Lee's Confederate army and led to the fall of Richmond. The park includes miles of original earthworks. Outstanding features are The Crater; Battery Five; Fort Stedman; the site of Fort Morton; City Point; Five Forks Battlefield; and Poplar Grove National Cemetery, where 6,000 Union soldiers are buried.
