Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia

The Five Forks Unit of Petersburg National Battlefield is located within the northern half of Dinwiddie County west of the city of Petersburg, Virginia.  Five Forks lies south of the Appomattox River at the extreme western edge of the inner Coastal Plain physiographic province, in or very near the transitional zone between the inner Coastal Plain and the Piedmont.  Elevations on the upland summits range from 260 to 302 feet above sea level (asl) at the forks; slopes descend to drainage bottoms at elevations down to 200 feet asl (Figure 2.1).

The soils on the well drained uplands are the among the oldest ones in the county, having formed in the residuum of acid crystalline rocks and remained stable in geologic time (Clausen et al. 1996:76).  The predominant upland soil type is Appling sandy loam with 2-7 percent slope (2B).  A typical profile for this soil is described below (Clausen et al. 1996:13,62,63):