Battle of Boydton Plank Road

The Battle of White Oak Road, also known as The Battle of Hatcher's Run, Gravelly Run, Boydton Plank Road, White Oak Ridge was fought on March 31, 1865, during the American Civil War at the end of the Richmond-Petersburg Campaign and in the beginning stage of the Appomattox Campaign. Along with the Battle of Dinwiddie Court House which was fought simultaneously on March 31, the battle involved the last offensive action by General Robert E. Lee's Confederate Army of Northern Virginia to stop the progress of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant's Union Army (Army of the Potomac, Army of the Shenandoah and Army of the James). Grant's forces were moving to cut the remaining Confederate supply lines and to force the Confederates to extend their defensive lines at Petersburg, Virginia and Richmond, Virginia to the breaking point, if not to force them into a decisive open field battle.On March 29, 1865, the Union V Corps under Major General Gouverneur K. Warren moved to the end of the Confederates' White Oak Road Line, the far right flank of the Confederate defenses. At the conclusion of the Battle of Lewis's Farm on that day, Warren's corps took control of advance Confederate picket or outpost positions and occupied a segment of a key transportation and communication route, the Boydton Plank Road, at the junction of the Quaker Road. Warren's corps was the closest Union infantry unit to Major General Philip Sheridan's force which had moved about 4 miles (6.4 km) to Dinwiddie Court House, Virginia west of the end of the Confederate lines and just south of Five Forks, Virginia. Five Forks was an important road junction for control of the critical Confederate supply line of the South Side Railroad (sometimes shown as Southside Railroad). Colonel Frederick Winthrop's brigade of Brigadier General Romeyn B. Ayres's division of the V Corps took a further advance position across Gravelly Run near the Confederate White Oak Road Line in torrential rain on March 30, 1865. Ayres was unaware of how close his men were settling in near the Confederate White Oak Road Line and that contrary to his observation and belief, the Confederate line extended beyond the end of his new position. This, and the separation between Ayres's corps and Sheridan's cavalry, were important factors when Ayres's troops were surprised by a Confederate attack the next day. Warren's corps, led by Brevet Major General Charles Griffin's First Division, counterattacked, pushed the Confederates back to their original lines, secured advanced positions and cut the Confederates access to direct communication with Pickett over White Oak Road and the Boydton Plank Road. After securing his position, Warren also was able to send units to outflank and drive off Pickett's forces which were in a position to inflict a serious defeat on Sheridan's troopers whom Pickett's force had pushed back that day at Dinwiddie Court House. The battles at White Oak Road and Dinwiddie Court House, while initially successful for the Confederates, even a tactical victory at Dinwiddie, ultimately did not advance their lines or achieve their strategic objective of weakening and driving back the Union forces or separating Sheridan's force from support. The battles and their aftermath set the stage for the Confederate defeats and the collapse of Confederate lines at the Battle of Five Forks on the following day, April 1, 1865, and the Third Battle of Petersburg (also known as the Breakthrough at Petersburg) on April 2, 1865 and ultimately led to the surrender of Lee's Army of Northern Virginia after the Battle of Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865.

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.

The Battle of Hatcher's Run, also known as Dabney's Mill, Armstrong's Mill, Rowanty Creek, and Vaughn Road, fought February 5–7, 1865, was one in a series of Union offensives during the siege of Petersburg, aimed at cutting off Confederate supply traffic on Boydton Plank Road and the Weldon Railroad west of Petersburg, Virginia.

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.

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.

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 Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield is a historic district in Dinwiddie County, near Petersburg, Virginia. It was the location of the Third Battle of Petersburg, in which the Union Army broke through Confederate Army lines protecting Petersburg and Richmond on April 2, 1865, during the American Civil War. The success of the breakthrough led to abandonment of Richmond by General Robert E. Lee, a general retreat, and surrender at Appomattox Court House one week later. Portions of the area were listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2003, and a different portion (overlapping the first) was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2006. Much of the battlefield area is part of Pamplin Historical Park, a private park open to the public that interprets the battle. The park includes a full-service visitor center, trails, displays, interpretive signs and history programs. The Civil War Trust (a division of the American Battlefield Trust) and its partners have acquired and preserved 407 acres (1.65 km2) of the Breakthrough battlefield in five transactions since 2004.

The Battle of Vaughan Road, also spelled "Vaughn", was an American Civil War engagement between Confederate States Army and Union Army cavalry forces protecting the flank of the main Union attack on Confederate positions on the western end of the Confederate line on October 1, 1864 during the Battle of Peebles' Farm, part of the Siege of Petersburg. The Union force repulsed Confederate attacks and protected ground just gained at McDowell's Farm and an important road junction on the Vaughan Road at the Wyatt Road. They inflicted about 130 casualties on the Confederates while losing about 90 men, about half of whom were taken prisoner. During the battle, Confederate Brigadier General John Dunovant was killed. Union Army Sergeant James T. Clancy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor on July 3, 1865, was credited with firing the fatal shot. In the overall actions on September 29, 1864, through October 2, 1864, the Union force suffered about twice as many casualties as the Confederate forces but both sides lost about the same percentage of their forces. The Union forces took some key positions and forced the Confederates to extend their increasingly thinly manned lines of defense at Petersburg, Virginia, and Richmond, Virginia. They did not achieve all of their objectives and did not cut the Boydton Plank Road which was a vital Confederate supply line.

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.

Sutherland is an unincorporated community in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, United States. Sutherland is located on U.S. Route 460 9 miles (14 km) west-southwest of Petersburg. This town was a stop on the Southside Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century. This became the Atlantic, Mississippi and Ohio Railroad in 1870 and then a line in the Norfolk and Western Railway and now the Norfolk Southern Railway. Sutherland was the location of the American Civil War Battle of Sutherland's Station on April 2, 1865 during the Appomattox Campaign. Mathematician Gladys West was born in Sutherland.

The Battle of Sutherland's Station was an American Civil War conflict fought on April 2, 1865, in Dinwiddie, Virginia during the Appomattox Campaign. Union columns converged on Petersburg on April 2, pushing through a large section of the Confederate defensive entrenchments. As Robert E. Lee desperately sought to buy time to allow his army to withdraw, Ulysses S. Grant launched several other attacks. Stubborn Confederate resistance at Fort Gregg delayed Grant's progress. Meanwhile, Maj. Gen. Nelson A. Miles's Union division battered Henry Heth's Confederates near Sutherland's Station and drove them off the field. The Confederate defenders were scattered and driven northwestward. With this victory, the Federals possessed the South Side Railroad, Gen. Robert E. Lee's last supply line into Petersburg. However, the lengthy defense of Fort Gregg and Grant's hesitation in aggressively following up on his success at Sutherland's Station permitted Lee to evacuate his army that night.

Lake Chesdin (also known as Chesdin Reservoir) is a lake in south-central Virginia, on the border of Chesterfield County and Dinwiddie County and going upstream into Amelia County. It provides water and power to the region. It is also a popular fishing area and is known to have great opportunities for largemouth bass. It is also known to have populations of crappie, bluegill, walleye, striped bass, channel catfish, gizzard shad and white perch.