Shovel Shovel (View 1)

Shovels were used by Union and Confederate soldiers, as well as slaves and free blacks (by the Confederacy) to construct and maintain an elaborate earthwork system. Construction of defensive fortifications around Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia began in the summer of 1862. By June 15, 1864, Ulysses S. Grant, general-in-chief of all the Union armies had shifted his focus in Virginia to capturing the important manufacturing and transportation hub of Petersburg. Confederate General Robert E. Lee rushed troops in his army to defend Petersburg. By April 1865, some 255 linear miles of earthworks snaked around the Richmond-Petersburg front.

The earthworks defined and often confined the soldiers’ experiences as Private Calvin Fish of the 9th Maine Infantry recorded in the summer of 1864, "It has been fight and dig, dig and fight ever since this campaign commenced.” Similarly, William Leak of the 22nd South Carolina wrote to his wife and children, “We are here still in these awful trenches firing away at the Yankees. The bullets are whizzing, the cannon roaring, and bombs bursting. I have got used to it; I have been in it so long.” The earthworks were critical to the soldiers who hoped and prayed to survive this campaign and the war.

Confederate Ordnance Sergeant James W. Albright wrote in his diary (now in the collection of the University of North Carolina) the single best sentence about the Petersburg Campaign: “Dig, dig, dig! is the word; while boom, boom, boom! from the mortars, & the shrill whistle of the minnies, alone, break the monotony of the tiresome, demoralizing, debilitating siege.” Petersburg National Battlefield protects many miles of earthworks, created with shovels and picks and we interpret the men who created and lived in the trenches which stand as a physical reminder of the nature of this campaign.