Cultural Landscape Report for Crater Battlefield, Petersburg NB
Layton TW and Foulds H. 2017. Cultural Landscape Report for Crater Battlefield, Petersburg NB. Cultural Landscape Report. National Park Service, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation. Boston, MA
Following the initial assault on Petersburg, Virginia ending June 18, 1864, Union forces developed a plan to excavate a tunnel under an entrenched Confederate position and destroy it by way of an underground mine. The explosion below Elliott’s Salient, detonated during the early morning of July 30, initiated a bloody, and ultimately unsuccessful, attack that became known as the Battle of the Crater. While the outcome of the battle was indecisive, it captured the public imagination in the years following the war, and continues to do so today, attracting approximately 80,000 visitors annually. The project setting is within the Eastern Front unit of Petersburg National Battlefield that comprised the scene of the fighting on July 30, 1864. This area includes those outlying areas lying to the east, providing artillery support for the Union offensive. This project area, approximately 330 acres in size, serves as the larger setting for the Crater site itself, the topographic void, the collapsed tunnel and rebuilt mine entrance, and adjacent terrain of approximately ten acres. A cultural landscape report is the primary document used by the National Park Service for management of its historically significant landscapes. This report has been developed consistent with the methodology outlined in A Guide to Cultural Landscape Reports: Content, Process, and Techniques. This report builds upon previous documentation, including the park’s enabling legislation, the Final General Management Plan and Abbreviated Final Environmental Impact Statement (2004), National Register of Historic Places documentation (2014 draft), and the Foundation Document Petersburg National Battlefield (2016). This report is organized into four chapters beginning with a site history that traces the physical evolution of the Crater Battlefield landscape, followed by up-to-date documentation of the existing conditions, an analysis and evaluation of the significance and integrity of the Crater Battlefield landscape based on existing National Register of Historic Places documentation, and treatment recommendations that provide guidance for the long-term management of the landscape.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Layton, Timothy; Foulds, H Eliot
- Date of Issue
- 2017-09-30
- Publisher
- National Park Service, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation
- Units
- PETE
- Keywords
- Battery XIII, Battery XIV, Battery XVI, Battle of the Crater, battlefield, Civil War, CLR, Confederate, Crater, Crater Battlefield, Crater Battlefield Association, cultural landscape, cultural landscape report, earthwork, Elliott’s Salient, Fort Morton, Griffith, Griffith Farm, landscape preservation, mine, mine tunnel, OCLP, Olmsted Center for Landscape Preservation, Pegram’s Battery, PETE, Petersburg, Petersburg National Battlefield, Petersburg National Military Park, Poor Creek, Taylor, Taylor Farm, tunnel, Union, United States Colored Troops, USCT
- Subjects
- CRIS-CL: 300198: Crater Battlefield , CRIS-CL: 300197: Eastern Front