Sculpted by Gary Casteel
 
1863 Signed and Numbered Limited Edition Monument Replicas
 
The Heavy Artillery regiment had served since early 1862 in the defenses of Washington, and although highly trained at firing the heavy siege artillery of the forts around Washington, none of the men had seen combat.  By April of 1864, the regiment had grown to over 3,300 men, the largest regiment in the United States Army and far more than the legal limit.  Gen. Ulysses S. Grant’s new campaign needed front line soldiers, and it was decided the “Heavies” would go to war as infantry. As a result, the regiment was divided in half and organized on April 20, 1864, from surplus men of the 2nd Regiment Heavy Artillery.  The “new” regiment was to be referred to as the Second Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery.  Even with the split, both resulting regiments were several times the size of veteran regiments in the field.
 
The Second Provisional was moved south to the battle front and attached to the First Division of the Ninth Corps. With that corps, it participated in the Battle of the Wilderness, and in all the battles of the Overland Campaign, operating as infantry. The inexperienced men took heavy casualties at Cold Harbor and in the initial assault on Petersburg, but especially at The Crater where almost two thirds of the regiment was lost.  By the end of August, the regiment had suffered 1,000 casualties and was disbanded on August 20, 1864, and reabsorbed by the parent 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery on September 5, 1864.  
 
The 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery was commanded at the Battle of the Crater (July 30, 1864—part of the Siege of Petersburg) by Lt. Col. Benjamin G. Barney.  When Barney was wounded, Capt. James W. Haig took command.  Early in the morning of July 30, a mine under the Confederate lines was detonated, killing over 250 men of Pegram’s Artillery Battery and Elliott’s South Carolina Infantry Brigade.  The Union attack that followed was a disaster. 
 
Confederate defenses recovered from the shock of the explosion. The break was cordoned off and Union advances into the maze of trenches behind the lines were stopped. Gen. Robert E. Lee ordered Mahone’s Division from its reserve position to launch a counterattack. It hit just as the Federals were finally organizing an advance out of the crater. The Federals fell back into the pit, so crowded they could barely move, and a massacre began. The fighting was over by early afternoon.  For the next eight months Grant would work to outflank the Confederate defenses. He would not launch another direct assault on the Petersburg lines until their final collapse in April of 1865.
 
The regiment went into action on July 30, 1864, with 780 men, losing 494 men as killed and wounded, including 8 officers.
 
The is located just west of The Crater at Stop Eight on the driving tour in Petersburg National Battlefield Park near the Eastern Front Driving Tour Stop #8 in Petersburg, Virginia.