Fort Davis

After four days of unsuccessful attempts to capture Petersburg by direct assault on June 15-18, 1864, Gen. U.S. Grant’s Union army began siege operations against the city. Grant’s immediate objective was to cut one of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s supply routes, the Petersburg and Weldon Railroad. Moving westward against the rail line in this area June 21-23, Union forces were stopped short of reaching their goal. They were able, though, to extend their trench lines across the Jerusalem Plank Road, now known as Crater Road. To protect this position, construction began on a large earthen structure initially called Fort Warren, named for Fifth Corps commander, Gen. Gouverneur K. Warren. A Union soldier assigned to this task recalled that the fort covered about three acres, could hold a brigade, had a trench twenty feet wide and ten feet deep with the rampart thrown up on the inside, was square with a diagonal through it, contained a magazine and two wells for water supply, and was built by men passing earth up from the ditch by hand. The completed fort held a garrison of 550 men with eight field guns. On July 11, while sitting nearby with the surgeon of the 39th Massachusetts Infantry, Col. P. Stearns Davis of the same unit was mortally wounded by a piece of exploding artillery shell, and the fort was then renamed in his honor.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States