Petersburg Defenses

Battery 37 stood in the 10-mile-long Confederate defensive line constructed between 1862 and 1864 east and south of Petersburg. Known as the Dimmock Line for supervising engineer Capt. Charles H. Dimmock, the defenses consisted of trenches linking 55 earthen forts and batteries. Four batteries, numbered 35 to 38, still remain here in present-day Lee Park. From east to west, Battery 35 was built for 9 guns in Bailey’s Woods on high ground east of present-day Willcox Lake and, after the Army of Northern Virginia occupied it in June 1864, was named Fort Walker for 3rd Corps Chief of Artillery Col. Reuben L. Walker. Across the lake on the next high ground, Battery 36 sustained 7 artillery pieces. Farther west, Battery 37 was built in Capt. Banks’ Field for 8 guns and was named Battery Pegram in honor of artillery Col. William R.J. Pegram, who was later mortally wounded in the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. Battery 38 stood a short distance farther west. These batteries faced south toward a U.S. Army position two miles away, beyond effective artillery range. The closest fighting in this part of the Confederate line came on June 22 in the Battle of Jerusalem Plank Road and on August 19, 1864, in the Battle of Weldon Railroad, when Gen. William Mahone’s Confederates slipped out of their lines to attack under cover of the ravine of Willcox Branch, which ran through the defenses. On April 2, 1865, Federal columns assaulted the defenses east of here along the Jerusalem Plank Road, now Crater Road, near Battery 29, Fort Mahone, and the guns here likely fired in response before the Confederates evacuated the lines and retreated west.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States