PETERSBURG, a city and a port of entry of Virginia, U.S.A., at the head of navigation on the Appomattox river, io m. from the James, and 2 2 M. S. of Richmond; in Dinwiddie county, but administratively independent. It is on Federal highways i and 57-1, and is served by the Atlantic Coast Line, the Norfolk and Western and the Seaboard Air Line railways, and river steamers. Pop. 31,012 in 1920 (44% negroes) ; 1930, 28,564 Federal census. Petersburg is a city of much historic and scenic interest, and also a progressive modern community, with a commission-manager form of government, an active public-health centre, hydro-electric power, banks with resources of over $22,000,000, wholesale houses doing an annual business approximating $20,000,000, a factory out put in 1927 valued at $19,839,809 and an assessed valuation for 1927 of It is a shipping point for tobacco, peanuts and lumber; is one of the principal trunk-manufacturing centres of the country; makes more than 4,000,000,000 cigarettes annually and 6,000,000 lb. of plug and twist tobacco for export ; and cures, steams and orders about 4,000,000 lb. of cigar tobacco. On Center Hill is a fine old mansion (1825) which was the headquarters of Gen. Hartsuff in 1865. From its lawn can be seen the several houses which served as headquarters for Cornwallis, Lafayette and Lee. Many monuments and tablets mark historic sites and commemorate historic events. In the suburb of Blandford (once the most fashionable residential section) is the Bristol Parish church, built in 1736, abandoned in 1800 and restored since 1901 as a memorial to the Southern soldiers buried around it. Veterans
of four wars rest in the churchyard, and the oldest stone bears the date 1702. Adjoining it is the Confederate cemetery, with 30,000 graves. Two national cemeteries (at Poplar Grove, 4 m. S., and at City Point, 9 m. E.) contain about 12,000 graves. At Ettrick, across the river from Petersburg, is the Virginia Normal and Industrial institute for negroes (1883) and a mile west is the State hospital for the coloured insane. Petersburg is the seat also of the Bishop Payne Divinity school (Protestant Episcopal) for negroes and charitable institutions for white and for coloured.
In 1645 Ft. Henry was built at the falls of the Appomattox, within the present boundaries of Petersburg. A trading post was established in 1733 by Maj. Peter Jones (a companion of Col. William Byrd), after whom it was called Peter's Point, and later Petersburg. It was incorporated as a town in 1748 and as a city in 1850. On April 25, 1781, the British occupied Petersburg, but they were dislodged by Lafayette in the following month. At the open ing of the Civil War the city had a population of 18,266. Both armies considered it a strategic point, and important operations took place in the vicinity in 1864-5. (See below.) Many of the fortifications still remain. During the World War, Camp Lee, 3 m. E. of the city, was one of the largest training camps, and at Hope well there were munitions plants employing 30,00o persons.