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| Petersburg National Battlefield - Fort Stedman (Source: National Park Service) |
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| Boundary Expansion (Source: docs.house.gov) |
On December 8, 2016, Congress passed legislation to significantly expand
the
Petersburg National Battlefield.
This is big news, at least for those interested in the Petersburg Campaign. The bill authorizes the National Park Service to add more than 7,000 acres to
the park's land.
The Civil War Trust, which has done much to preserve land around Petersburg and elsewhere, released a detailed announcement. The new land includes parcels at Peebles' Farm, Five Forks, Reams Station, and the White Oak
Road among many other locations.
It also appears the expansion may include a part of the Burgess Farm along the
Boydton Plank Road - the fields where the Burgess family barns stood and Brigadier General Thomas Egan deployed his division during the battle on October 27, 1864. I recently
posted a little-known map of this area from the National Archives.
