As I continued exploring Petersburg National Battlefield, I left Fort Stedman and continued to Fort Morton. This fort was known during the siege of Petersburg as the "14 gun battery", but today, the area includes these four cannons.
Near Fort Morton was the Taylor House Kitchen (which is what GoogleMaps calls it). Ruins of the kitchen today include a chimney and walls, made mainly of bricks.
At the far end to the left, there's a small set of stairs leading downward toward the kitchen's floor, so I went down there. You can see a fireplace opening at the bottom of the chimney.
The last place I stopped at is known as the Crater, where the Confederates won a battle against Union forces on July 30th, 1864. The Crater itself was created when Union troops dug a mineshaft under Confederate positions, filled it with explosives, and then set them off. Here's the Crater as I saw it today.
Next to the Crater is this stone marker.
A walkway leads around the Crater and past a monument to South Carolina troops, with an obelisk-like monument in the back ground.
The monument shaped like an obelisk is to Confederate General William Mahone, who commanded brigades which contributed largely to the Confederate victory.
This next monument was erected on the 100th anniversary of the battle.
The Mahone monument, the centennial monument and two others are seen along the walkway around the Crater.
As I was leaving, I had to take a shot of one more cannon, this one along the Crater walkway.
To learn more about the Battle of the Crater, go to Historic Petersburg, American Battlefield Trust, History and Encyclopedia Britannica. This concludes my report about Petersburg National Battlefield.
No comments:
Post a Comment