Imagine a house that used parts of old tombstones as part of the structure.

The Siege of Petersburg, also known as the Petersburg Campaign, was nine months (June 9, 1864-March 25, 1865) of trench warfare as Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Robert E. Lee’s armies. While ending the war was the primary objective, Grant also wanted to bottle up Lee’s troops so the Confederate Army could not launch out and attack Federal forces and possibly influence the 1864 Presidential election.

Grant’s strategy was to lay siege, not in the traditional manner of just surrounding a town or fortress and “waiting out” the inhabitants, but by severing the railroad connections and transportation hub that supplied Lee with supplies, and subjecting the Confederate troops to the type of trench warfare and bombardments that would be a precursor to the trench warfare of the First World War.

Lee was unable to sustain the fight and abandoned the city, retreating to Appomattox Court House where, realizing that the war was lost, Lee said, “…there is nothing left me to do but to go and see Gen. Grant, and I would rather die a thousand deaths.” On April 3, 1865 the Union troops entered the city of Richmond, Virginia, where President Lincoln met, shook hands, and greeted freed slaves.

On April 9,1865 General Robert E. Lee surrendered his Army of Northern Virginia to Union General Ulysses S. Grant, who told his officers, “The war is over. The Rebels are our countrymen again.”

The Union soldiers who died during the Siege of Petersburg were buried at Poplar Lawn Cemetery. When the wooden markers that designated their graves rotted away, upright marble headstones were erected to replace them. But during the Great Depression, funds for maintaining the cemetery, and the headstones, was hard to come by, so a compromise was reached. The city of Petersburg cut the tombstones in half, laying the top portion – which contained the names and details of the deceased soldiers – flat on the ground. These flat graves saved the city money on mowing the grass and other maintenance.

There were 2,200 bottom halves of the Union dead headstones which, in 1943 were sold to Oswald Young for $43. He used them in the building of his house, its chimney, and the walkway. To this day it is known as The Tombstone House.