Petersburg Statistics

Last summer I attended a program at Pamplin Park, hosted by The George Tyler Moore Center for the Study of the Civil War. The topic-Petersburg. For four days we listened to experts on the campaign as well as toured the various sites with Will Greene, amazing historian and the Man at Pamplin Park. One place we spent time at was City Point where I became much more appreciative of the logistical efforts of the Army of the Potomac. I always wondered who supported the men with the bayonets, but never truly fathomed the amount of effort that was put into supporting the men in the trenches. Here are some statistics I gleaned from that presentation and subsequent talks.

8 Wharves
280 buildings
22 miles of rail lines that took supplies right up to the 35 mile front
24 locomotives
275 railcars
10,000 workers
3,653 wagons repaired
2,414 ambulances repaired
49,972 horses received
20,577 mules received
15,000 capacity hospital
100,000 loaves of bread made per day
60,000 mules and horses fed daily


For fun here are some numbers of troops at Petersburg.
Here is some more Petersburg statistics for you. If you ever wondered the number of troops each side had during the campaign, I found this somewhere in my studies, but do not remember where. Still I share it.

Date Federal Confederate Ratio
June 1864 96,076 55,350 1.74-1
August 1864 51,142 48,501 1.05-1
October 1864 77,302 54, 651 1.41-1
February 1865 100,429 45,829 2.19-1
Average 86,185 52,453 1.65-1

On April 2nd the federal army attacked all along the line. In front of Lane’s North Carolina brigade came the federal 6th corps. 2,500 ragged and starved Rebs tried to hold back over 10,000 federals soldiers. Thus ended the Petersburg Campaign.