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Petersburg • East • Southeast • West • Monuments • Markers • Facts • Timeline

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The monument to Confederate Major General William Mahone is on the west side of The Crater at Stop Eight on the Petersburg National Battlefield Eastern Front Auto Tour. A monument to Mahoney’s Brigade is nearby.

William Mahoney was a civil engineer and railroad president before the war. He became colonel of the 6th Virginia Infantry and was then promoted to brigadier general in 1861. He took over a division in May of 1864 and was promoted to major general after his heroic defense of The Crater. He fought in all the actions of the Army of Northern Virginia and was with Lee at Appomattox.

Mahone was a small man of about five and a half feet and around one hundred pounds. When his wife, Otelia, was told that he had been wounded at the Second Battle of Manassas but that it had only been a flesh wound she replied, “Now I know it is serious, for William has no flesh whatsoever.”

After the war Mahone returned to railroading, founded what became Virginia State University and the Central State hospital in Dinwiddie County, and was active in politics, serving as a United States Senator. His railroad and land holdings made him one of the wealthiest men in Virignia.

From the marker:

Mahone

to the memory of
William Mahone

Major General C.S.A.

A distinguished Confederate
commander, whose valor and
strategy at the Battle of the
Crater July 30, 1864 won for
himself and his gallant brigade undying fame.
A citizen of Petersburg, Virginia,
Born Dec. 1, 1826
Died Oct. 9, 1895.
Erected by Petersburg Chapter
U.D.C.