The Exposed Position of the Federal Artillery wayside marker is on the walking trail about .25 mile from the parking area of the Civil War Trust’s Reams Station Battlefield. (map) The current position of Halifax Road on the other side of the trees was the route of the railroad at the time of the Civil War, while the road itself ran along present day Acorn Avenue farther to the east.
From the marker:
The Battle of Reams Station
The Exposed Position of the Federal Artillery
The first field fortifications were built at Reams Station on July 1, 1864 by soldiers of the Union Sixth Corps while tearing up the railroad following the return of the ill-fated Wilson-Kautz cavalry raid. Hastily thrown up, the works were “L” shaped with the small arm of the “L” running north-south along the Petersburg (& Weldon) Railroad and the other face angled northwest.
Whe Federal soldiers arrived at the works on August 23rd they found that the trenches had been ravaged by weather. Rain had eroded the sides and water stood in the ditch that ran along the inside of the earthworks. In the center of the works the Depot Road ran through an opening ten yards wide. Northeast of that opening, the rail line ran though a deep cut behind the trench with walls as high as thirteen feet in some places. The artillery the Federals placed west of the railroad had to be moved there by hand – there was no room to maneuver horses or limbers – which meant that the cannons and ammunition could not be easily moved if the position were to be overrun. Union soldiers also built a new line that faced south and joined the small end of the existing works, changing the “L” shape to a “U”.
Union Major General Andrew Humphreys described it: “The intrenchments at Ream’s Station were slight… They ran along the railroad about twelve hundred yards, having a return about eight hundred or one thousand yards long at each end, the returns being at nearly right angles with the railroad. The direction of the returns subjected the troops in them to a reverse artillery fire.”
The field works did their job for the first two Confederate assaults but then the third attack found the opening where the road-entered the northwest corner of the works ahead of you; it doomed the Federal soldiers trying to defend their unsupported position.
From the caption to the drawing in the lower left:
The drawing below illustrates the vunerability of the Federal position here on August 25, 1864.
Men of the 10th Massachusetts Battery in the center of the line were exposed to deadly Confederate musket balls every time they stood up to load the guns. They positioned their guns and limbers on the west side of the deep railroad cut, while the supporting caissons were placed on the other side. Cannoneers had to traverse the railroad cut while exposed to incoming fire every time they replenished their ammunition.
From the caption to the photo on the lower right:
Original 12-pounder bronze Napoleon cannon tube captured at Reams Station from Battery B, 1st Rhode Island Light Artillery. It was one of four guns lost after the battery ran out of ammunition and was then turned upon the retreating Federals by Confederate forces. It can be seen in the visitor center at Petersburg National Battlefield.