The War in America. View of Petersburg and its Suburbs from General Lee’s Head-Quarters.

Large c.19th engraving of the town of Petersburg from General Lee’s base during America’s Civil War.

In the summer of 1864, after six weeks of virtually constant combat in the Wilderness area of northern Virginia, the Union and Confederate armies of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee settled into an uneasy siege around the city of Petersburg, 23 miles southeast of Richmond. With a population of 18,000, Petersburg was the second largest city in Virginia and the seventh largest in the entire Confederacy. Lead works used for manufacturing bullets, as well as numerous warehouses located within its confines, gave the city a manufacturing value central to the Southern war effort.

From the original edition of The Illustrated London News.

References:
De Vries, L. History as Hot News: World of the Early Victorians Through the Eyes of the “Illustrated London News”.. London 1996 :.

Collections:
National Library Australia: Bib ID 8438724
State Library Victoria: RARELTEF 052 IL696I
State Library New South Wales: RECORD IDENTIFIER 74Vv5Oy4wEgl