Confederate picket line:

    During the summer of 1978 the National Park Service conducted
    excavations within the Confederate picket line earthworks (or
    advanced line) near the Crater.  These earthworks developed after
    the Union army exploded black powder placed in a mine that had
    been excavated beneath a Confederate fort in July 1864.  The
    explosion created a massive hole known as the Crater but the
    Union attack that followed failed to pierce the Confederate lines
    and the siege continued.  The archaeological excavations
    recovered few military artifacts, indicative of the limited resources
    available to the Confederate defenders of Petersburg.
    Archaeologists excavated a pit containing a series of fire hearths
    (see Figure 6).  The Confederate soldiers on picket duty burned
    coal that may have been obtained, as suggested by local
    Civil War historian Les Jensen, from the Chesterfield coal pits
    west of Richmond.  While advanced picket duty was hazardous,
    exposure to the elements was a more persistent foe.
    (Confederate General Bushrod Johnson, who commanded the
    division that occupied this picket line, wrote on December 31,
    1864, that several men in his command had no shoes.)  Desertions
    increased within the divisions of Johnson and others in February
    1865, and General Lee realized that he must oppose a growing
    Union army with diminished numbers of poorly-supplied troops.
 

Figure 6.  A view of the coal-stained hearth pit
at the Confederate picket line near the Crater
(the arrow scale is marked in inches; photo:
Brooke Blades and Mark Ohno, August 1978).

Grant's Cabin:
In the early 1980s the National Park Service moved General Grant's original cabin, used by him as his quarters
and office during the siege, back to City Point.  After the Civil War the cabin was transported to Philadelphia to
serve as a center piece in a local park.  The National Park Service conducted excavations at City Point prior to
replacing the cabin.  These investigations located the original cabin foundation trench.  The trench had been filled
with daub, which was used as chinking in the cabin, when the cabin was removed.  In light of this discovery, the
National Park Service placed the cabin slightly off from the original foundation in order to preserve this
archaeological feature.

    Figure 7.  General Grant's original cabin located at the City
    Point Unit. By using historic photographs from the Civil War,
    the National Park Service determined where the cabin was
    located during Grant's time at City Point.  National Park Service
    archaeologists confirmed the location when they found the
    foundation trench before the cabin was replaced (photo: Gail
    Brown, June 1998).