"Petersburg Ladies" is an American reel in D Major. The parts are played AABBCC. The title refers to the women of Petersburg, Virginia, now a suburb of Richmond. The reel was first printed in George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels, volume II (1839), and enjoyed some popularity as evidenced by its reprinting in a few tune books, such as Volume Second of the Home Circle (Oliver Ditson & Co. 1863) and Blume's Collection of Popular Melodies (1864). Chris Goertzen, in his book George P. Knauff's Virginia Reels and the History of American Fiddling (2017) explains that Petersburg was, at the time of Knauff's publication, Virginia's third-largest city with a population of 8,300 people in the 1830 census. Goertzen points out the Petersburg was located at the fall line of the Appomattox River and the most efficient shipping port for Knauff's musical instrument trade (primarily pianos) located in Farmville. He also sees a balancing juxtaposition of Knauff's tune titles "Richmond Blues" (a militia group) and "Petesburg Ladies" in the pamphlet. The final two measures of the C part in the original (as I received it) require the fiddler to shift to third position, which many traditional fiddlers cannot do. I have transposed these measures down an octave which is easier to play and sounds better to me than the original.