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{ 287 } aPPendix one Artifacts of War Nowhere else during the Civil War were there so many trenches, forts, magazines , bombproofs, covered ways, abatis, slashings, fraises, palisades, and chevaux-de-frise as along the Richmond-Petersburg Line. Orange Judd, editor of the American Agriculturist, visited the battlefield in June 1865 and commented that there must have been between 150 and 200 miles of earthworks within 10 miles of Petersburg. A modern accounting places the total length at 127.4 miles. Augustus Buell, a gunner with Battery B, 4th U.S. Artillery, estimated that the Federals alone had close to 35 miles of trenches south of the Appomattox River. A total of forty-one forts studded these works. In many places, confused observers could only identify a bewildering intersection of lines, covered ways, and secondary positions seemingly thrown togetherat random . “The whole country for miles about seems dug up and shovelled over,” remarked an anonymous writer for the Springfield, Massachusetts, Republican. It seemed to him that there was “no other purpose than to make as many heaps and as many holes as are possible in a given space.”1 Moreover, the lengthy stay of about 100,000 soldiers in one spot denuded the vegetation around Petersburg. Earthwork construction accounted for most of it, and the need to collect firewood took care of the rest. By modern estimates , about half of the landscape affected by the campaign consisted of forest in mid-June 1864. By April 1865, only 22 percent of the battlefield still had standing trees. In other words, more than half the timber was cut and used, leading to the deforestation of 4,400 acres of Virginia countryside.2 oBJeCTs of sTUdy On April 3, Meade and Lyman explored the Confederate earthworks only a few hours after Lee’s evacuation. Stopping on Cemetery Ridge near the crater, Lyman had trouble taking in the situation. “How changed these entrench- { 288 } Appendix One ments? Not a soul was there, and the few abandoned tents and cannon gave an additional air of solitude.Upon these parapets, whence the rifle-men have shot at each other, for nine long months, in heat and cold, by day and by night, you might now stand with impunity and overlook miles of deserted breastworks and covered ways! It was a sight only to be appreciated by those who have known the depression of waiting through summer, autumn and winter for so goodly an event!”3 Thomas M. Cook, a correspondent for the New York Herald, also toured the abandoned earthworks on April 3. He was nearly overwhelmed by “the exhaustion of engineering skill.” The landscape was “all dug over. Every manner of earthwork has been thrown up by either army. Corrections of the lines, alterations and changes, have kept the armies busy for a year. It is impossible to describe this vast network of intrenchments from the hasty glance I had while riding over them. The civilian cannot better understand than by conceiving a vast system of sunken roads sufficient for manuevering armies of 100,000 men, without exposing any above level ground.”4 Grant ordered a complete surveyof the Rebel lines on April 12, 1865, entrusting the job to Barnard. All available engineer officers of the Army of the Potomacwere assigned to the task. Michleralso had to make maps of the battlefields from the Wilderness down to Petersburg and survey the works at Fredericksburg as well.5 No officer was more interested in the fieldworks at Petersburg than Henry L. Abbot, commander of the Federal siege train during the campaign. Abbot noted that the Federals normally placed their magazines so they were sheltered as much as possible by the parapet. The entrance was placed toward the rear of the work, and at least six feet of earth covered the timber roof. These magazines typically were six feet wide and six feet deep, with varying lengths. There seldom was room in the works to make the magazine along “the elaborate plans laid down in the text-books.” Abbot knew of no instance where such a magazine exploded, although they were often hit.6 After examining both lines, Abbot concluded that the Federals used sandbags on top of the parapets to cover their heads, while the Confederates used logs with loopholes cut about every three feet; “but both devices were occasionally employed by each party.” Concerning covered ways, Abbot concluded that “absolute protection must be sacrificed to facility in turning the corners with wagons, and especially with siege guns...

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