The Siege of Petersburg Resources page at The Siege of Petersburg Online: Beyond the Crater offers more to users than any other page on the site. Many primary sources covering the Siege of Petersburg (aka the Petersburg Campaign) are listed here. You will eventually see not only every page of the nine books from the Official Records pertaining to the Siege of Petersburg, but also many other primary sources such as newspaper accounts, diaries, letters, and the like. Essays and articles from Battles and Leaders of the Civil War and The Southern Historical Society Papers will be added in the future. Orders of Battle, Maps, and battle summaries for each of the nine offensives of the Petersburg Campaign are included here. The Today in the Petersburg Campaign series covers the daily events of the Siege of Petersburg in chronological order. Complete lists of every regiment, battalion, and battery which was involved in the Petersburg Campaign will slowly become available. Lastly, I plan to create specific pages for every commander of an army, corps, division, and brigade in the entire Siege of Petersburg.
I realize that, when completed, the sheer amount of information included above will be massive. Please subscribe to Beyond the Crater’s RSS feed and join me on my slow but sure quest to digitize the Civil War Siege of Petersburg.
- Adjutant General Reports
- Confederate Inspection Reports
- Index to NARA Microfilm M935, Reel 10: Inspection Reports P-12 to 39-P-24
- Index to NARA Microfilm M935, Reel 12: Inspection Reports P-35 to 57-P-37
- Index to NARA Microfilm M935, Reel 13: Inspection Reports 1P-38 to 3-P-45
- Index to NARA Microfilm M935, Reel 14: Inspection Reports 2-P-35 to 31-P-51
- Index to NARA Microfilm M935, Reel 15: Inspection Reports 1-P-52 to 14-P-62
- National Tribune
- Other Postwar Publications
- Union Ordnance Returns
- Official Records
- Battles and Leaders
- MOLLUS War Papers
- Papers of the Military Historical Society of Massachusetts
- Confederate Veteran
- Southern Historical Society Papers
- Petersburg Siege Newspapers
- Letters & Diaries
- Leaders
- Unpublished/Archival Materials
- About
This is an incredible assett for the preservation of our country’s history. Many thanks for all of the very hard work it obviously has taken to create this site.
I have found so much information here that is lost to time. For example the battle that occurred between the 15th to 18th of June 1864. This is a forgotten footnote in so many other locations, yet the more that I read and study about this battle, it was one of the key pivot points for The Seige of Petersburg.
Thanks
Thims,
Thank you very much for the compliment. The good news is that I’m just getting started here. My focus is on trying to put up as much primary source material as I can find on the Siege, with a focus on material which is not readily available online.
Brett
I’m finding your site to be very useful in tracking several units I’m interested in. Thank you for all of your hard work here.
Will,
Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you find some of the resources here useful. The beautiful thing about all of this is that I set it up to be a lifetime’s work, so I’ve only just scratched the surface of all of the material out there. For instance, I have access to dozens of Civil War newspapers from June 18564-April 1865, many of them daily and many of them from smaller towns. Right now I’m in June 1864 for the Raleigh Confederate (only available in microfilm format I believe) and July 1864 for the Richmond Examiner. There will be much, much more where this came from. My main short term goal is to get unit pages up for every regiment, battalion, and battery which participated in the fighting around Richmond and Petersburg. I hope to have that complete by the end of 2013. My main goal after that is to polish the rough edges and make sure the site is ready for the June 2014-April 2015 sesquicentennial.
G’day
I’ve been following your RSS feed for quite a while and it is incredible what you have done so far.
I wonder if you can give me some advice: I’m looking for any USCT letters or diaries from black soldiers. I should imagine there may be some in abolitionist or black newspapers, but its difficult to track things down when I’m so far away: which is why your site is so great
Cheers
GB
Melbourne
Graham,
Thanks for the kind words. I appreciate the sentiment. On to your question. It’s a good one, and one I’ve often wondered about as well. Up to this point, most of the letters I’ve encountered are from the White officers of USCT regiments, with one prominent exception. The son of Frederick Douglass wrote back to the New York Herald on June 16, 1864. He was a 1st Sergeant in the 5th Mass. Colored Cavalry. His letter was a good one, covering fighting on June 15. Just do a search for Frederick Douglass and it will be the first hit. I am sure there are more. I’ll make some inquiries and see what else is out there.
Brett
I just want to thank you for making what was previously a “siege” into a campaign comprising numerous battles – on two fronts – that I now understand MUCH better, thanks to the two volumes by the late Ed Bearss and Bruce Suderow, and your maps. The entire Petersburg-Richmond Siege was once reminiscent of a Far Side cartoon in which “a miracle occurs” and the cities are abandoned and head west to Appomattox. No longer! And it highlights Grant’s thinking on how the War could be brought to a close. Thank you!