Military careers were wrecked trying to overcome its defenses. It burned anyway, the fires set under orders by retreating Confederate troops. There's still good stuff here. Memorials range from grand statuary to an alley named for Lee's horse. Petersburg's battlefield is a popular bike path for locals.
Joggers trot past surviving trenches and gunpits.
The Crater, where Pennsylvanians tunneled under enemy lines to plant charges that tore into hundreds of Confederates, is a grassy dip now. On its rim, at a family picnic, a little girl whines for more potato chips. In the battle and in skirmishes that accompanied a 292-day siege of Petersburg, more than 70,000 soldiers died. It's 70,000 Americans. Neighbors began decorating the graves in 1866, and they say that's what inspired Decoration Day, today's Memorial Day.