Blandford Church

Blandford Church. "Marks of cruel war and havoc abounded". , Blandford Church and Cemetery are somber reminders of the carnage inflicted during the Siege of Petersburg and Richmond between June 1864 and early April 1865. You are standing about where Timothy O'Sullivan stood soon after the siege ended, when he photographed the church ruins. Less than a mile to your left, on July 30, 1864, a huge explosion blasted a hole in the Confederate line and created an enormous crater. Federal troops rushed in, hoping to force their way to this hill to capture the city, but Confederate Gen. William Mahone hustled his division through this churchyard and plugged the gap. About 300 soldiers died in the explosion and 5,000 were killed or wounded in the subsequent fighting. Confederate Capt. Samuel T. Wright's four-gun battery, posted near here, fired almost 600 rounds of shells and canister during the battle., The siege dragged on for nine and a half months as Federal strategists forced Gen. Robert E. Lee to extend his thin defensive lines. They eventually stretched for 37 miles, from east of Richmond south and west around Petersburg to Five Forks., About 70,000 men total were reported killed, wounded, or missing during the siege. The mass burial in this cemetery of the remains about 30,000 Confederate soldiers reflect the horrors of war. Gathered from nearby battlefields and hospital only the names of 2,025 are known.,

"I found myself in Blan[d]ford cemetery, where a look could be had generally of the field and of the opposing lines. … Marks of cruel war and havoc abounded here evne in the 'silent city of the dead.'" , - Nora F.M. Davidson, ca. May 1866

, [Sidebar:] , Blandford Church was constructed in 1736. A Revolutionary War battle occurred near here in 1781. The church was abandoned in 1806 and later the city of Petersburg acquired the ruins. The Ladies' Memorial Association restored the church and installed 15 windows, designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany's studio, between 1904 and 1912., [Captions:] , Blandford Church, ca. April 1865 - Library of Congress , The two soldiers on the left may have been among those who breached Petersburg's defenses in the predawn darkness of April 3, 1865, and entered the city as Confederates fled west. You can stand where these soldiers stood and imagine their feelings on that morning, as they knew the war was almost over., "The Charge on Cemetery Ridge," Harper's Weekly. , Aug. 27, 1864. You are standing on Cemetery Ridge pictured here in the distance. The artist was behind Union lines south of the Crater. His drawing shows the church spires of Petersburg, the Federal objective, peeking over the ridge.