Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield Historic District at Pamplin Historical Park contains historic buildings and outbuildings, earthworks and rifle pits, as well as archaeological sites associated with the domestic and military occupation of the Dinwiddie County property between circa 1750 and 1865. Near the end of the Civil War, on property within the historic district, the Union army finally broke through the Confederate defenses of Petersburg on April 2, 1865, leading Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee to evacuate his troops from both Petersburg and Richmond. The action at what is now Pamplin Historical Park led one week later to the surrender of Lee’s army to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Court House. Now operated as a historic site, Pamplin Historical Park has preserved the historic structures on its property and constructed reproduction outbuildings and earthworks so that much of the property appears as it did in 1864 and 1865, during one of the defining events of U.S. history.

The Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield was added to the list of Virginia’s National Historic Landmarks in 2006. It is a 647.4-acre property located along Boydton Plank Road (U.S. Highway 1) in northeastern Dinwiddie County, near the city of Petersburg.  It was the site of the Union army’s breakthrough of the Confederate defenses of Petersburg on April 2, 1865, during the American Civil War.  In the six months prior to the battle, Confederate troops occupying the area constructed earthwork fortifications through what is now Pamplin Historical Park and adjacent land. Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield includes the most significant portion of the intact battlefield, including Federal staging areas for the assault, the Confederate fortifications, military dams, and rifle pits.  The boundaries for this NHL property differ from the earlier VLR- and NRHP-listed Petersburg Breakthrough Battlefield Historic District at Pamplin Historical Park.