English: Before Petersburg at sunrise, July 30th 1864.

MEDIUM: 1 drawing on green paper : pencil and Chinese white ; 34.5 x 51.3 cm. (sheet)

CREATED/PUBLISHED: 1864 July 30.

Signed lower right: AR Waud.

Title inscribed below image.

Inscribed above image: Spires in Petersburg. The mine.

Inscribed on separate sheet of cream paper: Explosion of the mine under the Confederate works at Petersburg—July 30th 1864. The spires in the distance mark the location of the city; along the crest, in front of them are the defensive works, it was an angle of these that was blown up, with its guns & defenders. The explosion was the signal for the simultaneous opening of the artillery and musketry of the Union lines. The pickets are seen running in from their pits & shelters on the front, to the outer line of attack. In the middle distance, are the magnificent 8 & 10 inch Mortar batteries, built and commanded by Col. Abbott. Nearer is a line of abandoned rifle pits, and in the foreground is the covered way, a sunken road for communication with the siege works and the conveyance of supplies and ammunition to the forts. The chief Engineer of the A. of P. is standing upon the embankment watching progress throw [sic] a field glass.

Published in: Harper's Weekly, August 20, 1864, pp. 536–7.

Gift, J.P. Morgan, 1919 (DLC/PP-1919:R1.2.727)

Reference print available in the Civil War Drawings file—1864.

Reference print available in Ray, Plate 83 (pp. 162–163)

Forms part of: Civil War drawing collection.

Published in: Viewpoints; a selection from the pictorial collections of the Library of Congress ... Washington: Library of Congress ..., 1975, no. 83.