Fort Morton at Petersburg National Battlefield

EASTERN FRONT DRIVING TOUR

STOP 7:  Fort Morton

Allow up to 30 minutes for a visit

The seventh stop on the Eastern Front Driving Tour at Petersburg National Battlefield is at Fort Morton, one of many forts the Union army built in July 1864 after the failed attempt to take Petersburg. It was a 14-gun battery built on the William Taylor Farm. Soldiers station here often traded artillery fire with the Confederates at Elliott’s Salient, which can be seen in the distance. On July 30, 1864, General Ulysses S. Grant and the fort’s commander, General Ambrose Burnside, looked towards Elliott’s Salient and watched the Battle of the Crater unfold from here. The Crater is the next and final stop on the Eastern Front tour.

The site of Fort Morton is accessed from the parking lot along a .1-mile paved path. The location of the fort is marked with four cannon. Remnants of the earthen walls still remain, but they are nowhere as distinct as some of the other forts visited on the Eastern Front Driving Tour. During the war the walls would have been bare earth, not covered in grass as they are today, and much higher.

Walking path to Fort Morton in the Eastern Front unit of Petersburg National Battlefield

Fort Morton stop on the Eastern Front tour of Petersburg National Battlefield

Not far from Fort Morton in the middle of a field is the foundation and chimney of the Taylor Farmhouse kitchen / laundry / slave quarters, the only pre-Civil War structure within Petersburg National Battlefield. To get out to the ruins you must traipse through the tall grass, which isn’t all that advisable due to the possibility of picking up a tick. I made the trip and didn’t get any on me, but I did pick up a tick while walking through the grass in another area of the battlefield.

Taylor farmhouse ruins near Fort Morton, Petersburg National Military Park

The house and kitchen were actually burned down on June 18, 1864, by the Union army during the First Battle of Petersburg, according to a news report, by “military necessity.” The ruins were known as “The Chimney’s” by both Union and Confederate soldiers, and the site was used as a common reference point. The following is a drawing by Andrew McCallum, the aide de camp of Union general Orlando Wilcox.

1864 drawing of the Taylor Farmhouse ruins

After the war, William Taylor built a new house on the kitchen foundation; the main house was torn down for reasons unknown today. The land was eventually purchased in the 1920s by the federal government and became part of Petersburg National Military Park (the original name of the park). During the 1940s and 50s, the National Park Service removed all post-Civil War structures on the Taylor farm, including the building materials used for the new house, leaving only the historic foundation and chimney standing.

Taylor farmhouse ruins near Fort Morton, Petersburg National Military Park

Taylor farmhouse ruins near Fort Morton, Petersburg National Military Park

Stop 8: The Crater | Stop 6: Fort Haskell | Eastern Front Tour Home Page

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