A Look Back at Petersburg’s Breakthrough

April 2 marked the anniversary of the Union breakthrough at Petersburg, paving the way for the collapse of the entire Confederate line and the retreat to Appomattox.

As it happens, we have one of the foremost authorities on the Breakthrough here on the staff at ECW: Edward Alexander. Edward, a ranger/historian at Pamplin Historical Park, is author of the ECWS book Dawn of Victory: The Breakthrough at Petersburg. (Learn more about the book here.)

Edward has written a slew of great Breakthrough-related posts. We’ve plucked a few from the archives that you might want to check out:

Breakthrough at Petersburg: “April Fool, Johnnies!” from April 1, 2015

Breakthrough at Petersburg: First Man Over the Works from April 2, 2015

“England Girds Its Armour”: John ‘Bull’ Doughty at the Breakthrough from May 6, 2015

“A Mosquito Fighting an Elephant”: A Carolinian’s Recollection of the Breakthrough from July 31, 2015

One Medal of Honor Too Many at the Breakthrough from February 17, 2016

You can also see Edward’s talk about the Breakthrough that he gave at the Third Annual Emerging Civil War Symposium at Stevenson Ridge, broadcast on C-SPAN 3: ECW on C-SPAN: Edward Alexander