Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield Historic District at Pamplin Historical Park

Pamplin Historical Park occupies 415 acres in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, where Union troops broke through the Confederate defenses of Petersburg on April 2, 1865. During the preceding six months, Confederate soldiers, mostly South Carolinians under Brigadier General Samuel McGowan, built earthwork fortifications across the land, and about 1,700 linear yards survive. The district also includes four historic structures: Tudor Hall, a 1812 farmhouse enlarged in Greek Revival style in the 1850s; the Banks House, built in stages between 1750 and 1810 and used as Ulysses S. Grant's headquarters on the day of the assault; its kitchen and slave quarter; and the Gothic Revival Hart House of the 1860s. Archaeological sites mark outbuildings, winter huts and a gun battery. Newer museum buildings and reproductions are classed as noncontributing. The district was recognized for its national importance to the Petersburg Campaign, for its architecture, and for its archaeological potential.