PETERSBURG, Va. (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is issuing a Civil War stamp depicting the 1864 Siege at Petersburg.
A dedication ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday at the Petersburg National Battlefield for the new stamp.
Officials say the ceremony will take place near the site of an underground explosion that took place 150 years ago and created a huge depression in the earth. That led to the battle being named “Battle of the Crater.”
The stamp depicts the 22nd United States Colored Troops engaged in the June 15-18, 1864, assault on Petersburg. The Petersburg Campaign stamp is a reproduction of an 1892 painting by J. Andre Castaigne.
The stamp is part of the Postal Service’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, which claimed the lives of more than 620,000 soldiers.
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