As discussed below, that became one of four railroads built (some with government subsidies) constructed (with separated terminals to the advantage of local freight haulers) before the American Civil War.

It connected commerce as far inland as Farmville, Virginia at the foothills of the Blue Ridge and the Appalachian Mountains chain, to shipping further east into the Chesapeake Bay and North Atlantic Ocean.

Petersburg rebuilt its railroads, including a connecting terminal by 1866, although it never quite regained its economic position because much shipping traffic would continue to the Norfolk seaport.

[7] In the post-bellum period, a historically black college which later developed as the Virginia State University was established nearby in Ettrick in Chesterfield County.

Amtrak serves the city with daily Northeast Regional passenger trains to Norfolk, Virginia, and long-distance routes from states to the South.

[8] In the early 21st century, Petersburg civic leaders promote the city's historical attractions for heritage tourism, as well as industrial sites reachable by the transportation infrastructure.

[9] During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the final British drive to regain control of the colony led to the Battle of Blanford in April 1781, which started just east of Petersburg.

Lord Cornwallis' forces coming up from the Carolinas into Virginia occupied Yorktown on the York River, waiting to meet a Royal Navy fleet.

[10] Residents' devotion to the cause of America two decades later during the War of 1812 (1812–1815) led to the formation of the militia unit of the Petersburg Volunteers—who distinguished themselves in action at the Siege of Fort Meigs on the Great Lakes frontier on May 5, 1813.

[15] Free Black men worked as tobacco twisters, in iron foundries, and as draymen, boatmen and cabdrivers, or in the skilled trades of mason, wheelwright, coopers and blacksmiths.

[17] Commission merchants (39 firms by 1860) bought agricultural products from nearby Dinwiddie County as well as points to the north, south and west and sold supplies.

All these civic improvements helped attract and hold a substantial business community, based on manufacture of tobacco products, cotton and flour and banking.

After his defeat at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant remained east of Richmond, crossed the James River and moved south to Petersburg.

On June 9, troops led by William F. "Baldy" Smith of the 18th Corps, attacked the Dimmock Line, a series of defensive breastworks constructed to protect Petersburg.

[25] The limitations of Petersburg's small geographic area and proximity to Richmond are structural problems that have hampered it in adapting to major economic changes in the 20th century.

During WWII Camp Pickett was established west of Petersburg near the small rural town of Blackstone, and the Defense Supply Center, Richmond opened in neighboring Chesterfield.

Since that time, Petersburg has struggled in competition with nearby Richmond, as the capital has grown to dominate the region in a changing economy as industries restructured.

With many black Americans having served the nation and cause of freedom in WWII, in the postwar years they pressed for social justice, an end to segregation, and restoration of voting power.

Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, the pastor of Gillfield Baptist Church, had become friends with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the early 1950s when they were both in divinity school in New York state.

[28] According to Walker and other close associates of King, Petersburg had played an important role, a kind of blueprint for the national civil rights movement.

[20] In an attempt to stem its economic decline, in 1971 the city completed steps begun in 1966 to annex 14 square miles of land from adjacent and predominantly white counties of Prince George and Dinwiddie.

The annexation had been generally supported by the citizens of Petersburg, black and white alike, since the mid-1960s, as a necessary measure to allow the city of expand its tax base and its potential for growth and development.

A federal judge, citing provisions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, agreed and ordered the city to be divided into single-member districts, or wards, to enable blacks the opportunity to elect representatives of their choice.

The prolonged annexation fight contributed to decades of racially tinged hostility between the county and city governments that have had negative impact on regional cooperation.

[33] In the late 1980s and early 1990s, numerous remaining retail merchants, including Thalhimers, JC Penney, and Sears Roebuck, left older shopping areas in Petersburg for the new Southpark Mall that opened in 1989 in adjacent, and predominantly white, Colonial Heights.

The boycott ended after the mayor of Colonial Heights, James McNeer, met with Harris and members of his board to discuss job opportunities for blacks in the mall area.

The Army's Logistics Branch, Ordnance, Quartermaster, and the Transportation Corps moved there from Fort Eustis following the round of Base Realignment and Closure actions in 2005.

[36] Petersburg is located on the Appomattox River at the fall line, which marks the area where the Piedmont region (continental bedrock) and the Atlantic coastal plain (unconsolidated sediments) meet.

Located along the Eastern Seaboard, approximately halfway between New York and Georgia, Petersburg is 21 miles (34 km) south of Virginia's state capital, Richmond, and is at the juncture of Interstates 95 and 85.

Groups such as Historic Petersburg Foundation and Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities have worked to restore many of the city's buildings and recognized important districts.