Join the Petersburg Battlefields Foundation (PBF) for this Civil War educational caravan driving tour covering the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House. This battle is part of Grant’s Ninth and final Offensive of the Petersburg Campaign. The tour will feature seven stops putting you right on the grounds over which the battle was fought. Stops will include private, public, National Park Service and American Battlefield Trust properties. Water and snacks will be provided during the tour. A light lunch will be provided as part of your registration fee at Historic Bonneville in the heart of the battlefield, our last stop on the tour.
General Ulyssess S. Grant had stretched General Robert E. Lee’s army to the breaking point! How could he cut and hold the Boydton Plank Road, but even more so, the Southside Railroad, the last remaining artery supplying Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia? Major General Philip H. Sheridan’s powerful cavalry corps, which had recently rejoined the Army of the Potomac at Petersburg from the Shenandoah Valley, was sent to reach the right and rear of the enemy. Grant wanted Sheridan to draw the Southerners out of their entrenchments for a fight out in the open. To oblige and counter the Federal threat, General Lee dispatched Major General George Pickett with a force of 5,500 infantrymen and Major General Fitzhugh Lee with 5,000 cavalrymen to block Sheridan. They would clash along Chamberlain’s Bed and across the high open plateau in the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House on March 31, 1865, 160 years ago.

[Tour details and a check-in/starting location will be emailed from Petersburg Battlefields Foundation (PBF) after tickets are purchased. NO WALK-INS – tickets must be purchased ahead of time BY THURSDAY, MARCH 27 so handouts can be prepared for all of the attendees.]