Editor’s Note: This article was transcribed by Jackie Martin.
THE SITUATION AT PETERSBURG.
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The Petersburg papers of yesterday note no change in the situation there. Our troops have made themselves more comfortable by the erection of arbours or booths, which serve to protect them from the heat of the sun.
During all of Monday night, at intervals of five minutes, there was a cannon roar, and all the day long Tuesday there was a repetition of this salute.
The Yankees were busy as bees Tuesday in more ways than one. As early as nine o’clock great clouds of dust could be seen in the vicinity of battery No. 5, moving towards our right. On the enemy’s extreme left he is said to have extended his lines, and that his flank in that direction now reaches nearly to Reams’ station, on the Weldon railroad, which is ten miles from Petersburg.—Tuesday he was reported to be fortifying there, and felling trees, for the purpose of protecting his lines by an impenetrable abattis. On the right, too, he was reported to be busily engaged yesterday felling the trees on the banks of the Appomattox, and erecting batteries.
It is now reported that the Yankee army is not now operating the line of the Norfolk and Petersburg railroad. The enemy tore up and carried off sixteen miles of rail near Suffolk shortly after the evacuation of Norfolk. Since then the Kautz raiders have destroyed much of the track near Wakefield and Waverly depots.1
Source:
- “The Situation at Petersburg.” Richmond Examiner. June 30, 1864, p. 2 col. 4 ↩