Petersburg (Virginia)

Petersburg (Virginia), city, in (but administratively independent of) Dinwiddie County, southeastern Virginia, a port on the Appomattox River; incorporated as a city 1850. It developed as a trade center for tobacco and livestock. Virginia State University (1882) and Richard Bland College (1960) of the College of William and Mary are here. Historic buildings in the city include Blandford Church (begun 1735), Farmers Bank (1817; now a museum of banking), and the Federal style Centre Hill Mansion (1823; now restored). Nearby is U.S. Fort Lee.

Fort Henry was established on the site of Petersburg in 1645-1646. The community later developed around a trading post built (circa 1675) near the fort by Major Peter Jones, for whom the settlement was named, first as Peter's Point and, by the late 18th century, as Petersburg. During the American Revolution the community was captured (1781) by the British. Late in the American Civil War, Petersburg (by then an important manufacturing and transportation center) was the scene (1864-1865) of a successful ten-month siege by Union forces under General Ulysses S. Grant. The fall of Petersburg to federal troops on April 2, 1865, led directly to the Union capture of Richmond. Many sites of the Petersburg campaign are in Petersburg National Battlefield. Population 41,055 (1980); 38,386 (1990); 33,740 (2000); 32,445 (2006).