Featured Image: Stacked Arms on Bollingbrook Street.
Probably taken on April 3, 1865, this image shows the fresh, virtually new rifles of a Federal unit stacked on Bollingbrook Street, with a backdrop of a few of the 800 buildings damaged by Federal shelling during the Siege. Several ghostly soldiers haunt the image.
Petersburgers fight for and against secession.
Long after most of the Southern states had seceded from the Union, Virginia, the Mother of Presidents, and the Mother of States, held back. Petersburg elected a Unionist, Thomas Branch, to Virginia’s Secession Convention, and that Convention repeatedly voted overwhelmingly against secession. Even after Petersburg’s fire-eating Congressman, Roger Atkinson Pryor, convinced Petersburg to order Branch to move for secession, the convention voted it down. Frustrated, both Pryor & fellow fire-eater Edmund Ruffin, a former Petersburg resident himself, went to Charleston to agitate for firing on Fort Sumter, thinking that would cause Virginia to secede. Ruffin fired the first symbolic shot on Fort Sumter on April 12. After Lincoln called for troops from loyal states, the Convention voted for secession on April 17, Branch weeping as he cast his vote. A state-wide referendum on May 23 confirmed secession, but, beginning on April 19, Petersburg militia units had already begun marching off to war.
Appomattox Point: Reliving Moments of Our Civil War Past
Appomattox Point offers the 1865 Petersburg Panorama and remastered prints of the extraordinary photographs taken in and around Petersburg during and just after the Civil War. We use only the finest printers and media to create archival quality black-and-white giclee prints. These prints open up an entirely new perspective for the viewer. It is almost as if one is personally experiencing Civil War Petersburg. To Purchase A Print, Click Here
Our Prize Offering: The 1865 Petersburg Panorama
The 1865 Petersburg Panorama is the most important image among those produced by the many photographers present during the Siege of Petersburg (1864-1865). Taken soon after the fall of Petersburg (April 3, 1865), probably by Timothy O’Sullivan, the four separate photographs that comprise the image were always intended to be used together. However, the four images had never been merged as they were meant to be until Michael Vaughan of Appomattox Point did so in 2003. Appomattox Point offers the image printed on two high-quality media, fine art print and canvas. In high resolution, and with remarkable detail, the Petersburg Panorama is a must-have for any student of the Civil War.
Above: The first wagon train leaving Petersburg after the fall of Petersburg. Right: Attending to the wounded during the Battle of Hatcher’s Run
Other Civil War Photographs
We also offer fine art prints of a carefully selected group of other images created during the Siege of Petersburg. They are remarkable for their detail and power. Some result from our merging of stereographic images, yielding broader vistas. Yet no detail has been sacrificed and none of the ravages of time afflicted on the negatives have been erased. These are authentic remasterings of the images as they have come down the many decades to us. From time to time we will make available more of these images than presently offered. To make a purchase Click Here.
h4. Petersburg: The Last Citadel
Petersburg was the principal battleground of the Civil War for nearly one quarter of that momentous war. It was the place where “they drove ol’ Dixie down,” where the outcome of the war was determined, where the Union was preserved, where slavery in North America met its end. Defended by Robert E. Lee for nearly ten months, Petersburg was so important to the outcome of the war that both Abraham Lincoln and his most successful general, Ulysses S. Grant, were here in Petersburg at the end. In fact, Lincoln visited Petersburg twice.