Sixth Maryland Infantry
Dinwiddie County, Dinwiddie County, Virginia
Marker Inscription
The Sixth Maryland Infantry attacked over this ground in the pre-dawn hours of April 2, 1865. A portion of the regiment, led by Major Clifton K. Prentiss, poured over the Confederate works here, suffering numerous casualties in the process, including Majo
The Story
In the darkness before dawn on April 2, 1865, Union forces launched a massive assault on the Confederate lines defending Petersburg, Virginia. The Sixth Maryland Infantry charged across this ground, with a portion of the regiment under Major Clifton K. Prentiss breaking over the Confederate earthworks at heavy cost. This breakthrough was part of the final collapse of Lee's defenses that forced the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond, leading to the surrender at Appomattox just a week later.
Why it matters
The assault marked here helped shatter the Confederate defenses around Petersburg in the closing days of the Civil War, setting in motion the chain of events that ended the conflict and preserved the Union.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
By the spring of 1865, the war in Virginia had ground to a near-standstill in the trenches around Petersburg. For roughly nine and a half months, the armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee had faced each other across an ever-lengthening line of earthworks south of Richmond. It was siege warfare on an American scale rarely seen before — miles of trenches, picket lines, forts, and abatis, with soldiers living in the mud through a long, grinding winter.
Petersburg mattered because it was a railroad hub. The rail lines running through the city fed Richmond, the Confederate capital just to the north, and kept Lee's hungry, dwindling army supplied. Cut those rails, break those lines, and the whole Confederate position in Virginia would come undone.
By late March and early April, Lee's army was stretched dangerously thin. Grant kept extending his lines westward, forcing Lee to spread fewer and fewer men over more and more ground. The defenses around Petersburg had reached a breaking point — and everyone on both sides could feel it coming.
People & events
In the dark, cold hours before sunrise on April 2, 1865, the Union army launched a massive assault all along the Petersburg front. This is the moment remembered here as the Breakthrough — the Third Battle of Petersburg — when the trench stalemate finally broke open.
The Sixth Maryland Infantry was one of the regiments that surged forward over this very ground. Attacking in the pre-dawn darkness meant moving through obstacles and enemy fire without the comfort of being able to see what lay ahead. A portion of the regiment, led by Major Clifton K. Prentiss, pressed all the way over the Confederate works — and paid for it. The fighting was close and costly, and the regiment suffered heavy casualties in the act of taking the line.
The human details of that morning are worth pausing on. These were men climbing over earthworks they had stared at for months, into the muzzle of a defense fighting for its life. Breakthroughs like this one are easy to summarize in a sentence, but they were won foot by foot, in the kind of confused, deadly close combat that a marker can only gesture toward.
Its place in the American story
What happened on this ground was a hinge of American history. The April 2 breakthrough shattered the Confederate defenses around Petersburg, and once those lines gave way, the entire position became untenable. Lee was forced to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond — the Confederate capital — that very night.
What followed is known as the Appomattox Campaign: a running pursuit westward as Lee's army tried to escape and regroup, with Union forces pressing hard at every step. It lasted only about a week. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia to Grant at Appomattox Court House.
So the assault marked here belongs to the closing chapter of the Civil War — the days when four years of bloodshed finally tipped toward an end. The breakthrough at Petersburg helped set in motion the chain of events that preserved the Union. Standing on this spot, you are standing very near where the long war began, at last, to end.
If you visit
This is quiet farmland-and-woods country in Dinwiddie County, southwest of Petersburg, and that quiet is part of the experience. Try to picture it not as it is now but as it was before dawn on that April morning — dark, tense, and about to erupt. The ground itself is the artifact here; the assault swept across the very fields and tree lines around you.
The marker is a monument to a single regiment's part in a much larger battle, so it rewards a slow read and a long look around. Watch for the lay of the land — where attackers would have come from, where the Confederate works once stood. The Petersburg breakthrough covered a wide front, and this is one piece of a story that spreads across the region.
Make it part of a larger Civil War road trip. This site pairs naturally with Petersburg's battlefields to the northeast and with Appomattox Court House to the west — letting you follow the final week of the war roughly in the order it unfolded, from the breakthrough here to the surrender that ended it.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
Plan your visit
NearbyMake a day of it — museums, food, and places to stay near this marker.
Museums & culture
- Battlefield Center0.2 mi away · 6523 Duncan Road
- Historical Education Center0.4 mi away · 6411 Duncan Road
- The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier0.4 mi away · 6125 Boydton Plank Road, VA
- Siege Museum5.3 mi away · 15 West Bank Street, Petersburg
- Farmers' Bank Museum5.4 mi away · 19 Bollingbrook Street, Petersburg
- Petersburg Area Art League5.4 mi away · 7 East Old Street, Petersburg
Attractions
- Virginia Motorsports Park3.0 mi away
- Swaders Sports Park7.5 mi away
- Henricus15.0 mi away
Food & drink
- Subway0.7 mi away · 6460 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA
- Waffle House1.2 mi away · 5631 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA
- Burger King1.2 mi away · 5615 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA
- Taco Bell1.3 mi away · 25318 Ritchie Avenue, North Dinwiddie, VA
- Giuseppe's Pizza1.4 mi away
- KFC1.4 mi away · 5420 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA
Places to stay
- Holiday Inn Express & Suites Petersburg/Dinwiddie1.2 mi away · 5679 Boydton Plank Road, Petersburg, VA
- Crater Inn5.6 mi away · 2727 South Crater Road, Petersburg, VA
- Travel Inn - Petersburg5.7 mi away · 530 East Washington Street, Petersburg
- Super 85.7 mi away · 3138 South Crater Road, Petersburg, VA
- Motel 6 Petersburg, VA - Fort Lee5.8 mi away · 25 North Little Church Street, Petersburg, VA
- Econo Lodge5.9 mi away · 900 Winfield Road, Petersburg, VA
Places data © OpenStreetMap contributors. Hours and details change — call ahead.
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Related people
- · Major Clifton K. Prentiss
Related events
- · Third Battle of Petersburg (Breakthrough at Petersburg)
- · Appomattox Campaign
Themes & tags
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