Teacher:In this task, you are given a text of many news articles seperated by special token "|||||". Your task is to summarize them.
Teacher: Now, understand the problem? Solve this instance: Nine and a half months, 70,000 casualties, the suffering of civilians, thousands of U. S. Colored Troops fighting for the freedom of their race, and the decline of Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of No. Virginia all describe the Siege of Petersburg. It was here Gen. Ulysses S. Grant cut off all of Petersburg's supply lines ensuring the fall of Richmond on April 3, 1865. Six days later, Lee surrendered. ||||| (CNN) The National Park Service is calling part of a Civil War battlefield "an active crime scene" following a series of excavations. 
  
 Authorities are investigating suspected looting at Petersburg National Battlefield , just south of Richmond, Virginia. The National Park Service describes Petersburg as the site of the war's longest siege, lasting more than nine months between 1864 and 1865 and claiming 70,000 lives. 
  
 "Earlier this week, one of the park employees was out doing landscape work and noticed some things were out of place," park spokesman Chris Bryce said. 
  
 The digging happened in the eastern part of the park, where there was a large number of excavated pits, officials said. "Many of the holes were just left open," Bryce said. "They were several inches deep in most cases." 
  
 Marked graves were not disturbed. 
  
 Park officials have not described what type of items or relics may have been targeted. They have not confirmed whether anything was removed. 
  
 "They are probably doing their homework of the area, probably did research on Civil War," Bryce said. "They were in the ground (and) they likely would have used a metal detector and a digging tool." 
  
 Civil War relics, including uniform buttons, rifle parts and other metallic battlefield items, regularly show up on Internet auction sites. 
  
 The park service says looting a federal battlefield is a crime, and violators can be fined as much as $20,000 and face two years in prison. 
  
 The siege of Petersburg is known as the longest military event of the Civil War, pitting Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant against Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. 
  
 The Petersburg siege and battle over supply lines led to the eventual fall of the Confederate capital of Richmond and the surrender of the Confederacy. 
  
 In one of its most infamous battles, called The Crater, Union troops detonated a mine underneath a Confederate fortification. 
  
 But poorly led Union troops were repulsed after they rushed into the gap. 
  
 Grant called the Battle of the Crater "the saddest affair I have ever witnessed in war." 
  
 The excavations occurred where significant fighting took place in June 1864 and March 1865. 
  
 Bryce said Saturday he was unaware of any tips to authorities. Officials are hopeful someone saw something and will report it, he added. 
  
 This is not the first time people have done such excavations. Bryce said someone was successfully prosecuted in 2010. 
  
 "What really took us off guard was this being so close to Memorial Day, where the nation is in the midst of starting the summer and a weekend where we should reflect on sacrifices made." ||||| In this file photo, battlefield historian and tour guide Jimmy Blankenship is photographed near the crater at the Petersburg National Battlefield, on Jan. 14, 2004, in Petersburg, Va. 
  
 Virginia's National Park Service said a portion of the Petersburg National Battlefield has been declared a crime scene after looting. 
  
 Chief of interpretation Chris Bryce said Saturday that park officials are in the process of assessing the damage. He said there were a number of places where the ground had been dug up earlier this week. 
  
 Petersburg National Battlefield is a 2,700-acre park, about 26 miles south of Richmond, that marks where more than 1,000 Union and Confederate soldiers died fighting during the Siege of Petersburg 151 years ago. 
  
 There are a number of locations on the battlefield where someone has gone in and actually dug and upturned the soil by several inches, Bryce said. 
  
 Unfortunately, he said, people will sometimes go into national parks or to battlefields and dig up relics in search of buttons from uniforms, bullets, artillery shells and other historic items. They often sell their loot online, because there is a market for Civil War relics. 
  
 "When this happens, it's not just a loss for Petersburg National Battlefield, it's, a loss for the American people," he said. The timing of the looting could not have been worse, he said, because it comes right before Memorial Day. "And now we're having to deal with a situation where someone has essentially come in and has desecrated the park on the eve of a very important weekend for us in terms of commemoration." 
  
 Digging up national parks and battlefield in search of historic memorabilia is a violation of the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, which carries a penalty of up to two years in prison and a $20,000 fine, he said. 
  
 The battlefield remains open to visitors, he said, but a portion of it will be marked off limits as a result of the looting. 
  
 Copyright Associated Press |||||
Student:
Just days before the area's major commemorative events linked to Memorial Day, the National Park Service has announced that Virginia's Petersburg National Battlefield is an "active crime scene," reports CNN. "Earlier this week, one of the park employees was out doing landscape work and noticed some things were out of place," says park spokesman Chris Bryce, and looting is suspected. The park stretches over 2,700 acres just south of Richmond, and holes several inches deep were discovered in places where the soil had been untouched. Though park officials have yet to detail the types of items targeted or even whether anything was taken, Bryce notes that the looters "likely would have used a metal detector and a digging tool" and "probably did research" on the Civil War. The siege of Petersburg was the war's "longest military event," dragging on for nine months between 1864 and 1865 and resulting in the loss of some 70,000 lives. Digging at such locations in search of items from the Civil War—uniform buttons and rifle parts do find their way onto online auction sites—violates the Archaeological Resources Protection Act, reports NBC Washington. The crime can carry a $20,000 fine and up to two years in prison. Bryce says that while the battlefield will remain open to visitors during the Memorial Day weekend, a portion will be off limits as the investigation is under way. He says that the act "took us by surprise" at a time when "we should reflect on sacrifices made." (See how high school students gave Civil War veterans their identity back.)