8/31/15 - Taono, VA

Today we drove to Petersburg Battlefield.  Here Union forces under Grant laid siege to Lee's Confederate Army which was defending the town of Petersburg, a town critical to supplying Lee's army and the capital of Richmond.  This involved many months of trench warfare and Lee finally retreated after his line was broken by a huge black powder explosion from a tunnel the Union had dug.  You can still see remnants of the trenches and the crater from the explosion.  We went to a Civil War graveyard in Petersburg and to a house in City Point where the Union troops headquartered.  Grant kept his headquarters in a small cabin which is still there.  Later we went to Brass Canon Brewing in Toano near our campground, Williamsburg Christian Retreat Center.  This is a really quiet, nice campground.