Five Forks Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Petersburg National Battlefield

Layton, Timothy; Killion, Jeffrey; Everett, Rebekah

The Five Forks Battlefield is part of Petersburg National Battlefield, a unit of the National Park Service (NPS) located in south central Virginia in Dinwiddie County. The 2,659-acre park is comprised of four separate units – Grant’s Headquarters at City Point, the Eastern Front, the Western Front, and the Five Forks Battlefield – that lay in a semi-circle to the east, south, and west of the City of Petersburg (in 2016, the park’s authorized boundary was expanded by Congress to add another 7,238 acres). Established in 1926, the park commemorates the campaign, siege, and defense of Petersburg in 1864 and 1865, and preserves the breastworks, earthworks, walls, and other defenses or shelters used by the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Named for the distinctive spoke-like intersection of three road corridors, the Battle of Five Forks came ten months after the initial assault (June 1864) on Petersburg, when Union forces led by Major General Phillip Sheridan defeated a Confederate force from Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia commanded by Major General George Pickett. Due to a series of logistical and tactical failures on the part of the defending Confederate soldiers, the Union force was able to inflict over 1,000 casualties on the Confederates and took up to 4,000 prisoners. In seizing Five Forks, the Union also gained control of the South Side Railroad, which was the last vital supply line and evacuation route serving Petersburg and the capital at Richmond, causing both strongholds to fall shortly after the battle. Known as the “Waterloo of the Confederacy,” the Battle of Five Forks was one of the final battles of the Civil War, with Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House occurring only eight days later. Despite its key role in the Appomattox Campaign, the Five Forks Battlefield was not initially included in the park because it was privately owned, although later planning documents in the early 1940s indicated the battlefield as desirable for acquisition. In 1960 Congress authorized the addition of the battlefield, but acquisition of the property did not occur until 1990 and 1991. Today the Five Forks Battlefield covers 1,115 acres, which encompasses nearly all the area involved in the crucial April 1 fighting. The site retains its rural and agricultural character, defined by a gently rolling landscape composed of a patchwork of cleared fields and swaths of pine and deciduous woodlands, punctuated by occasional rock outcrops and intersected by narrow open road corridors. Visitors can access the Five Forks Battlefield via any of the three roads, though White Oak and Courthouse Roads are the most frequently traveled. The battlefield includes earthen fortification structures as well as historic road traces and an eight-mile trail system that extends throughout the unit. The “Burnt Quarter,” a historic plantation home and farm used by both Union and Confederate forces during the battle, is located on private property directly southwest of the park boundary. Several key battle-era views across fields and meadows are maintained. However, some Civil War-era open fields are covered by successional woodlands that have grown at varying rates, while other historically wooded areas were cleared for agricultural use after the historic period. Later commemorative monuments installed between 1961 and 1965 form a layer of development over the 1864–65 battlefield landscape. Visitor facilities also include the Five Forks Visitors Contact Station, a comfort station, and interpretive waysides.

Five Forks Battlefield: Cultural Landscapes Inventory, Petersburg National Battlefield

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