Blandford Church

Built circa 1737, Blandford Church was in ruins at the time of the Civil War, but because it stood behind Gracie’s, Colquitt’s and Elliott’s Salients in the Confederate defense lines, it served as a temporary field hospital during the Petersburg siege. After the explosion of a Union mine at The Crater on July 30, 1864, Confederate Gen. William Mahone rushed three brigades through here to blunt the Federal advance. In the early morning of March 25, 1865, Confederate Gen. John B. Gordon formed his assaulting columns here for the attack on nearby Union Fort Stedman, opposite Colquitt’s Salient. After the war, many Confederate dead from area battlefields and hospitals were reinterred here in a special section. Of approximately 30,000 soldiers buried here, only 2,025 are known, and all are in mass graves. A small section south of the churchyard wall contains the remains of members of the New Orleans Washington Artillery who were killed during the siege, and after the war Confederate generals William Mahone, David Weisiger and Cullen Battle were buried here. Between 1904 and 1912, Louis Comfort Tiffany installed fifteen windows in the church, eleven representing states in the former Confederacy, two for border states, and the last for the Ladies Memorial Association.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States