Visiting Pamplin Park, 149 years & 2 days after the Breakthrough

I just got home from my daughter's field trip to Pamplin (4th graders). I had never been there before but this is a very nice facility and museum and I would totally recommend it. In the museum you are given a headset and as you walk through the museum instead of having to read signs, all of the content is delivered via audio. They talk about camp life, prisoners of war, medicine etc etc it is excellently presented. The only part I was disappointed about is we did not have time to see the "War so Terrible" movie.

After you leave the museum there is a plantation that is just over 200 years old Not a huge home but big enough. They also have the building next to it to show how house slaves would have worked. The guide talked to the kids about plantation owners, small farmers, house slaves and field slaves around the plantation areas.

Then we got the fortifications. The guide talked to the kids about tactics and we split the class in half to demonstrate a flanking movement. We had a stop to talk about food and clothing, as well as explaining to the kids what the #1 killer was...disease. There was a station set up with a young man in period clothing to talk about camp life. This is on an actual camp site used by Confederate soldiers during the siege of Petersburg. He talked about a half and half tent, winter quarters and then he talked about punishments for soldiers in camp who misbehaved.

The final part at the forifications was drill. They have used concrete to reconstruct what the actual fortificaiton would have looked like in 1865 complete with the ditch in front, abatis etc etc. So each child was given a fake rifle. First our drill sergrant demonstrated the 9 steps to fire and fired an actual shot. Then we lined the kids up, taught them the 9 steps and pretend to fire. Next up was using a pretend bayonet and how you would advance with it, every 3rd step they were to yell like the devil. We wanted to scare the other side to run away moreso then actually using they bayonet. The kids loved the drill part. We also saw the actual fortifcations as they are now and the guide talked to the kids about Charles Gould, including showing them the Troiani painting.

The kids were engaged and focused the entire day. I went to Jamestown with the same class last fall, and they were not as focused there. I was very impressed in the way the material was presented that there was no sugar coating. It was straight on war talk and all the implications of it.

I don't have any pictures. I brought my digital camera but my daughter grabbed it as soon as I got there and took pictures of her friends.

And I will go back with my wife to see the entire park at my leisure
 
I just got home from my daughter's field trip to Pamplin (4th graders). I had never been there before but this is a very nice facility and museum and I would totally recommend it. In the museum you are given a headset and as you walk through the museum instead of having to read signs, all of the content is delivered via audio. They talk about camp life, prisoners of war, medicine etc etc it is excellently presented. The only part I was disappointed about is we did not have time to see the "War so Terrible" movie.

After you leave the museum there is a plantation that is just over 200 years old Not a huge home but big enough. They also have the building next to it to show how house slaves would have worked. The guide talked to the kids about plantation owners, small farmers, house slaves and field slaves around the plantation areas.

Then we got the fortifications. The guide talked to the kids about tactics and we split the class in half to demonstrate a flanking movement. We had a stop to talk about food and clothing, as well as explaining to the kids what the #1 killer was...disease. There was a station set up with a young man in period clothing to talk about camp life. This is on an actual camp site used by Confederate soldiers during the siege of Petersburg. He talked about a half and half tent, winter quarters and then he talked about punishments for soldiers in camp who misbehaved.

The final part at the forifications was drill. They have used concrete to reconstruct what the actual fortificaiton would have looked like in 1865 complete with the ditch in front, abatis etc etc. So each child was given a fake rifle. First our drill sergrant demonstrated the 9 steps to fire and fired an actual shot. Then we lined the kids up, taught them the 9 steps and pretend to fire. Next up was using a pretend bayonet and how you would advance with it, every 3rd step they were to yell like the devil. We wanted to scare the other side to run away moreso then actually using they bayonet. The kids loved the drill part. We also saw the actual fortifcations as they are now and the guide talked to the kids about Charles Gould, including showing them the Troiani painting.

The kids were engaged and focused the entire day. I went to Jamestown with the same class last fall, and they were not as focused there. I was very impressed in the way the material was presented that there was no sugar coating. It was straight on war talk and all the implications of it.

I don't have any pictures. I brought my digital camera but my daughter grabbed it as soon as I got there and took pictures of her friends.

And I will go back with my wife to see the entire park at my leisure

I'm glad you enjoyed it too :thumbsup:
The museum was really great. Wonderful relics & exhibits. What did you think of the Battle simulation? The ground rumbling underneath your feet? The zip sound of narrowly missing minie balls passing by your head? I even felt a blast of air pass through my hair! Lol

The relics were awesome too. The personal bible that stopped a bullet & saved the owners life. The minie balls which collided & fused in mid air... Really neat stuff!
 
This is the Hart House. It sits directly next to the old Confederate earthworks & very near the breakthrough point. Site of fighting during two different assaults during the Petersburg Campaign. This property was actually owned by two different Northern families. I believe one from NY & one from PA. The first family moved here in the 1850's & second in 1862! I was startled by that... Who moves to a potential war zone during a conflict? Another shocker... Although Northerners, the husbands of both families joined the Confederate Army!

The house has been restored by Pamplin Park. It's said that after the breakthrough Mrs. Hart & a servant came out of hiding & provided aid to a mortally wounded Federal officer. They later buried him near the family garden.

image.jpg


The Hart House is literally mere yards from the confederate earthworks. It's amazing that the family stayed in the home. But perhaps there was just nowhere else to go!
 
Yes the section where you walk through and you can hear and feel the battle around you is just above and beyond anything I have come across at any other CW museum.

Right behind that fence at the Hart House is where we taught the kids tactics. One group was defending the house when they were taught what a flank attack was and felt like. And yes the fortifications are literally 20 yards beyond that fence you see beyond the house.
 
I'm glad y'all had a good time. It's the perfect place to interest younger folks about the ACW. By the way, the movie is very good. I bought the unabridged version.
 
I'm glad y'all had a good time. It's the perfect place to interest younger folks about the ACW. By the way, the movie is very good. I bought the unabridged version.
Like Jamieva I just didn't have enough time to see it. Looking forward to seeing it in the future though :smile:
 
I'm at the Holiday Inn Express in Petersburg as I write this. Tomorrow I will visit Pamplin Park and in the evening the Pamplin Park Petersburg Spring Tour begins. On Saturday afternoon we walk the battlefield where on the evening of June 17, 1864 my g-g grandfather took part in the Union charge on the Dimmock Line confederate fortifications before Petersburg. On Sunday we tour the Crater where he survived the carnage there but was taken prisoner. Needless to say I am excited to the max. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me! :happy:
 
I'm at the Holiday Inn Express in Petersburg as I write this. Tomorrow I will visit Pamplin Park and in the evening the Pamplin Park Petersburg Spring Tour begins. On Saturday afternoon we walk the battlefield where on the evening of June 17, 1864 my g-g grandfather took part in the Union charge on the Dimmock Line confederate fortifications before Petersburg. On Sunday we tour the Crater where he survived the carnage there but was taken prisoner. Needless to say I am excited to the max. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me! :happy:
I know you will have a good time. I'm sorry that I won't be in town or I'd be tempted to go hunt you down to say "Hi" in person.
 
I'm at the Holiday Inn Express in Petersburg as I write this. Tomorrow I will visit Pamplin Park and in the evening the Pamplin Park Petersburg Spring Tour begins. On Saturday afternoon we walk the battlefield where on the evening of June 17, 1864 my g-g grandfather took part in the Union charge on the Dimmock Line confederate fortifications before Petersburg. On Sunday we tour the Crater where he survived the carnage there but was taken prisoner. Needless to say I am excited to the max. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me! :happy:
Please report back when you have a chance. Sounds like you will have a great day.
 
Please report back when you have a chance. Sounds like you will have a great day.
Actually it was a 3 day tour and it exceeded all my expectations. No matter how much one may read and study Civil War battles and troop movements you can never get the feel for a battlefield until it has been seen and walked, particularly with the great historians which we had.

The first day we went to the Bermuda Hundred and followed the movements of Benjamin Butler’s XVIII Army Corp from May 5, 1864 until mid-June when Gen. Lee “uncorked” the bottle that held Butler there and moved the Confederate defenders to the entrenchments at Petersburg.

The second day we walked, among other things, the line of assault of the Ledlie Division’s attack of June 17th against the Rebel entrenchments defending Petersburg along the Dimmock Line. This is described in my g-g grandfather’s letter of June 18, 1864. If you read this letter you will understand the emotion I felt as I walked the path of attack. Will Greene, the Tour Master, read the letter to the group when we reached the furthest point of the advance, where the attackers were driven back suffering great casualties. Here is the link to this letter:

http://wbp2ndpaha.wordpress.com/june-1864/

Here is the link to a second letter describing the assault:

http://wbp2ndpaha.wordpress.com/july-1864/

The high point of the third day was, of course, the Crater. I must say I was quite proud of my g-g grandfather when we stood at the monument showing that his regiment, the 2nd PA Provisional Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, who were the first into the Crater following the mine explosion, was also the Union regiment that made the furthest advance beyond the Crater during the attack. Another highlight was that we were able to go where no organized tour had gone before, which is the area of Confederate covered ways where Gen. Mahone’s Virginia Bridge formed up to make the counterattack that ultimately stopped the Union attack and led to the capture and imprisonment of Adj. William B. Phillips, 2nd PA Provisional Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, my great-great grandfather.
Petersburg Tour Day 6 089-c.jpg
 
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Another highlight was that we were able to go where no organized tour had gone before, which is the area of Confederate covered ways where Gen. Mahone’s Virginia Bridge formed up to make the counterattack that ultimately stopped the Union attack

Did that tour take you nearby the Blandford Cemetery?

I can't imagine how that feels. I toured that area by myself and had a good (not great) understanding of events from what I have read. I really really enjoyed it. But to walk in your ancestors footsteps must have been wonderful. You must've really felt a connection at that time. :thumbsup:
 
Actually it was a 3 day tour and it exceeded all my expectations. No matter how much one may read and study Civil War battles and troop movements you can never get the feel for a battlefield until it has been seen and walked, particularly with the great historians which we had.View attachment 36526
Sounds like you had a great trip. I enjoyed the first hand accounts.
 
Did that tour take you nearby the Blandford Cemetery?

I can't imagine how that feels. I toured that area by myself and had a good (not great) understanding of events from what I have read. I really really enjoyed it. But to walk in your ancestors footsteps must have been wonderful. You must've really felt a connection at that time. :thumbsup:
We didn't visit the cemetery. I did that on my own when I was there in 2007. It is quite a place and standing there I could see that had the Crater Battle been successful for the Union and Cemetery Hill taken that Petersburg would fall. The war would have in all likelihood been over very soon thereafter.
 
Sounds like you had a great trip. I enjoyed the first hand accounts.
Here I am standing at the monument. At the extreme right of the photo is the edge of the crater. The location of the marker shows the approximate distance that the 2nd. PA Provisional Heavy Artillery advanced beyond the crater. They advanced farther than any other Union regiment, so this marks the furthest advancement of the Union Army during the battle.

Petersburg Tour Day 6 095-c.jpg
 
We didn't visit the cemetery. I did that on my own when I was there in 2007. It is quite a place and standing there I could see that had the Crater Battle been successful for the Union and Cemetery Hill taken that Petersburg would fall. The war would have in all likelihood been over very soon thereafter.

Yes, and that's a very impressive & moving Cemetery. An estimated 30,000 buried Confederate soldiers & all but about 2,000 only known unto God. Just a short stone column engraved with the name of the state of origin of those intered in a mass grave.

image.jpg
 
Yes, and that's a very impressive & moving Cemetery. An estimated 30,000 buried Confederate soldiers & all but about 2,000 only known unto God. Just a short stone column engraved with the name of the state of origin of those intered in a mass grave.

View attachment 36552
Here is a photo I took of the Cemetery in 2007. Even though I am a "Union" man I was quite moved by the scene.

Petersburg 350-c.jpg
 
F. W. Tremain CDV.jpg Tremain's No. 2.jpg Tremain's S&W.jpg I visited Petersburg battlefield this summer with my two sons and daughter on our "Civil Warnado" 11 day road trip. Unfortunately we only had time to cover the Eastern Front and didn't make it to the Western Front part of the park. I regret it now, but there was SOOO much to see and so little time... One of the young men who fell in the attack on Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 was Frank W. Tremain, 22 years old, from Lanesboro, PA. He had served as an officer with the 89th NY since 1861, and assumed command of the regiment in late 1864. He survived four years of war, only to fall a week before Lee's surrender. Here is a CDV of Frank Tremain and his S&W Model 2 Army Revolver.
 
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View attachment 47298 View attachment 47299 View attachment 47300 I visited Petersburg battlefield this summer with my two sons and daughter on our "Civil Warnado" 11 day road trip. Unfortunately we only had time to cover the Eastern Front and didn't make it to the Western Front part of the park. I regret it now, but there was SOOO much to see and so little time... One of the young men who fell in the attack on Fort Gregg on April 2, 1865 was Frank W. Tremain, 22 years old, from Lanesboro, PA. He had served as an officer with the 89th NY since 1861, and assumed command of the regiment in late 1864. He survived four years of war, only to fall a week before Lee's surrender. Here is a CDV of Frank Tremain and his S&W Model 2 Army Revolver.

The lost of life in the last year of the war always seems most tragic to me. To us now with 20/20 hindsight it's clear the outcome was a mere formality & the Union had been won the war in 1864. The fighting in 1865 being merely the death throws of the Confederacy....
 
I bought Confederate Alamo by John J. Fox and The Final Battles of the Petersburg Campaign by A. Wilson Greene that same day at Pamplin Historical Park. Gave me some good reading for the next couple months. Having visited those sites just before sure helped visualization.
That was a very good read. What a bloody fight!
 
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