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Confederate Battery 8 is Stop Two on the Petersburg Eastern Front Auto Tour.
This was the site of one of the batteries of the original Confederate defensive line around Petersburg. It was captured on June 18 by the 1st and 22nd Regiments of United States Colored Troops. The Confederate battery was demolished and a new set of earthworks facing the other way was incorporated into the Union lines. These are the earthworks that you see today. A wayside marker next to the earthworks tells more of the history.
The earthworks of Battery Eight with their wayside marker.
From the marker:
Battery 8 of the Dimmock Line
On June 15, 1864, after seizing Battery 5, Union troops swept southward along the Dimmock Line. Men of the 1st and 22nd Colored Troops captured Battery 8, overcoming heavy resistance from part of Brig. Gen. Henry A. Wise’s Virginia brigade. By the morning of June 16, the 1.5 miles of Confederate works between Batteries 3 and 11 were in Union hands.
After capturing this section of the Dimmock Line, the Federals incorporated parts of it, including Battery 8, into a second line of siege works. Battery 8 would see combat only one more time, when Union guns here helped repel the Confederate breakthrough at Fort Stedman in March 1865.
From the caption to the background photo:
This photo, taken from a point across the tour road to your right, shows Battery 8 (in the background) five days after its capture by the Federals. In the coming weeks, Confederate Battery 8 would be demolished by the Federals and replaced by the redan you see today.
Map to Stop Two on the Auto Tour
Stop Two is on the right side of Siege Road 0.6 mile south of the Visitor Center. (37°14’10.7″N 77°21’29.0″W)
Directions to the next stop on the Petersburg Eastern Front Auto Tour:
Continue south on Siege Road about 0.3 mile. Stop Three is on the left.