A Grave Concern: Prosper Dallien

On this date in 1865, Prosper Dallien died while recovering from wounds he had received at Petersburg more than two months before.  Petersburg, Virginia, was under siege by the Union army for around 9 months.  The specific conflict mentioned on Captain Dallien’s tombstone, Fort Stedman, marked Lee’s final attack of the Civil War.  Trying to break the siege of Petersburg, Confederate forces under General John B. Gordon attacked the Union redoubt Fort Stedman on March 25, 1865.  The Confederates were able to gain control of the redoubt and surrounding trenches that day, but were driven out again by Union reinforcements on the next day.  It is during this battle that Dallien was wounded.  I don’t know if Captain Dallien died of those wounds or contracted disease while in the hospital, but by the time he died, the Civil War had officially ended and the first steps had been taken to reconciliation.