Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield

Pamplin Historical Park is a 424-acre private sector historical park located near Petersburg, Virginia. The park preserves open space near Richmond, Virginia in Dinwiddie County, Virginia and serves the dual use of preserving a significant fragment of the Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield, a National Historic Landmark, and key components of the Third Battle of Petersburg. The park also provides a footprint location for the National Museum of the Civil War Soldier, which is located within the park.The Pamplin Historical Park cooperates with owners of adjacent parcels of Third Battle of Petersburg property, the Petersburg National Battlefield and the American Battlefield Trust, in preserving much (not all) of the physical space on which the battle was fought and interpreting it for the general public. In particular, a decisive segment of the battle, the Boydton Plank Road breakthrough by the 5th Vermont Infantry and other units, occurred on Pamplin Park property at dawn on April 2, 1865.The park includes several pre-Civil War structures that are interpreted to 1864-1865 and presented as an integral part of the park landscape, including Tudor Hall Plantation (c. 1812). 3 miles (4.8 km) of park trails include close-up looks at the Confederate trenches that were the target of the climactic Federal assault. The park bears the name of its founder, businessman and Civil War enthusiast Robert B. Pamplin, Jr. A. Wilson Greene helped develop Pamplin Historical Park and served as its executive director from 1994 to 2017. It is a Virginia Historic Landmark, was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

The Third Battle of Petersburg, also known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg or the Fall of Petersburg, was fought on April 2, 1865, south and southwest Virginia in the area of Petersburg, Virginia, at the end of the 292-day Richmond–Petersburg Campaign (sometimes called the Siege of Petersburg) and in the beginning stage of the Appomattox Campaign near the conclusion of the American Civil War. The Union Army (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Shenandoah and Army of the James) under the overall command of General-in-Chief Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant, launched an assault on General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia's Petersburg, Virginia trenches and fortifications after the Union victory at the Battle of Five Forks on April 1, 1865. As a result of that battle the Confederate right flank and rear were exposed. The remaining supply lines were cut and the Confederate defenders were reduced by over 10,000 men killed, wounded, taken prisoner or in flight. The thinly held Confederate lines at Petersburg had been stretched to the breaking point by earlier Union movements that extended those lines beyond the ability of the Confederates to man them adequately and by desertions and casualties from recent battles. As the much larger Union forces assaulted the lines, desperate Confederate defenders held off the Union breakthrough long enough for Confederate government officials and most of the remaining Confederate army, including local defense forces and some Confederate Navy personnel, to flee Petersburg and the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, during the night of April 2–3. Confederate corps commander Lieutenant General A.P. Hill was killed during the fighting. Union soldiers occupied Richmond and Petersburg on April 3, 1865, but most of the Union Army pursued the Army of Northern Virginia until they surrounded it, forcing Robert E. Lee to surrender that army on April 9, 1865, after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Virginia.

Fort Gregg was a Confederate fort located near Petersburg, Virginia. The battle for Fort Gregg occurred on April 2, 1865, as part of the Third Battle of Petersburg in Dinwiddie County near the outskirts of Petersburg.

The Battle of Peebles's Farm (or Poplar Springs Church or Poplar Grove Church) was the western part of a simultaneous Union offensive against the Confederate works guarding Petersburg and Richmond, Virginia, during the Siege of Petersburg in the American Civil War.

Central State Hospital Chapel is a historic chapel located on the grounds of Central State Hospital near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. It was built in 1904, and is a simple, 1 1/2-story brick structure measuring 80 by 50 feet, with a front gable roof and Late Gothic Revival details. The building features lancet window openings.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, and was removed from the National Register in 2017.

Mansfield is a historic plantation house located near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. It was built in stages starting about 1750, and is a 1+1⁄2-story long and narrow frame dwelling with a hipped roof. It has a hipped roof rear ell connected to the main house by a hyphen. It features an octastyle Colonial Revival porch stretching the full length of the front facade.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Wales is a historic house and site in Dinwiddie County, Virginia. It was built in 1730 by Captain Howell Briggs of the Virginia Militia on a tract of land a few miles west of Petersburg, Virginia, in what was then Prince George County. Dinwiddie County was formed from Prince George in 1752. Briggs is said to have named his plantation "Wales" after the Prince of Wales.Wales was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.The area listed was 94 acres (38 ha) and includes four contributing buildings and two contributing structures.The main house is a five-part Palladian architecture composition and is a Virginia Historic Landmark.

Mayfield Cottage is a historic plantation house located near the grounds of Central State Hospital near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. Believed to be the oldest existing brick house in Dinwiddie County, it was built around 1750 and the residence of Robert Ruffin until 1769, when he moved to King William County. From 1885, the property was used by the hospital for its headquarters. The house remained part of the hospital complex until 1969. It was moved from its original site about .5 miles (0.80 km) to the southeast of the present site in 1969.

Matoaca is a census-designated place (CDP) in Chesterfield County, Virginia, United States. The population was 2,403 at the 2010 census. It is named after the Pamunkey princess Matoaka who was better known by her nickname "Pocahontas". It was near the site of an Appomattoc village Matoka or Matoks, which was reputedly her girlhood home, and the palace town of the weroansqua Oppussoquionuske.In 2016 it was listed as No. 42 in CNN Money's Top 50 Places to Live in the United States.

Olive Hill is a historic plantation house located near Matoaca in Chesterfield County, Virginia. It was built in 1740, and is a two-story, five-bay-wide, white frame house in the Georgian style. The original structure measures 38 by 32 feet (11.6 by 9.8 m). It is sheathed in molded weatherboard and topped by a pedimented roof. The interior features a Chinese lattice stair with a molded hand rail.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975.

Burlington is a historic plantation house located near Petersburg, Dinwiddie County, Virginia. It was built about 1750, and is a 1+1⁄2-story frame dwelling with a center-passage, double-pile plan. It has a slate gable roof with dormers. A one-story wing was added during its restoration in 1954.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

Virginia Motorsports Park (VMP) is a 1/4 mile (0.402 km) dragstrip in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, just outside of Petersburg. It opened in 1994 and originally hosted the NHRA's Virginia NHRA Nationals. It has a seating capacity of 23,000 spectators. After a brief time with IHRA beginning in 2010, the track returned to NHRA in 2012. On January 30, 2018, NHRA announced that a pro national event will be returning to Virginia Motorsports Park, as the NHRA Summernationals moved from Englishtown, New Jersey, after Old Bridge Township Raceway Park decided to cancel all drag racing operations there earlier in the month. The first Virginia NHRA Nationals took place in early June 2018. That event lasted two seasons before being removed by the NHRA on March 25, 2020 as part of a purge of races to reduce the schedule to 19 events because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Virginia NHRA Nationals will be returning May 13-15, 2022.Virginia Motorsports Park is also a member track of the Professional Drag Racers Association (PDRA), a regional sanctioning body of professional 1/8 mile (0.201 km) doorslammer (Pro Stock and Pro Modified) style drag racing, with Pro Modified classes split by type of power boosters added (turbocharger/supercharger, nitrous oxide, and an entry-level 632ci limit format), and the Pro Stock class being Mountain Motor. The current owners are Tommy and Judy Franklin, who purchased the facility in 2017. Tommy Franklin is also one of the founders of PDRA. The track has been hosting the PDRA Brian Olson Memorial World Finals since October 2019.Virginia Motorsports Park has a dirt track located beside the dragstrip which hosts tractor pulling, motorcross and other events. The facility also hosts the annual Dinwiddie County Fair in October.