Battle of the Crater History,
Battle of Petersburg Civil War, The Mine, Battle of Richmond, Siege of Richmond Petersburg Campaign, The Petersburg Siege,
Civil War Trench Warfare Results, Essays, Essay
Battle of the Crater
Other Names: The Mine
Location: Petersburg
Campaign: Richmond-Petersburg Campaign (June 1864-March 1865)
Date(s): July 30, 1864
Principal Commanders: Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside [US]; Gen. Robert E. Lee [CS]
Forces Engaged: IX Corps [US]; elements of the Army of Northern
Virginia [CS]
Estimated Casualties: 5,300 total
Description: On July 30, 1864, after weeks of preparation, in
Burnside’s IX Corps sector the Federals exploded a mine beneath Pegram’s Salient, blowing a gap in the Confederate
defenses of Petersburg. From this propitious beginning, everything deteriorated rapidly for the Union attackers. Unit
after unit charged into and around the crater, where soldiers milled in confusion. The Confederates quickly recovered and
launched several counterattacks led by Maj. Gen. William Mahone. The break was sealed, and the Federals were repulsed with
severe casualties. Ferrarro’s division of black soldiers was badly mauled. This may have been Grant’s best chance
to end the Siege of Petersburg. Instead, the soldiers settled in for another eight months of trench warfare. Maj. Gen. Ambrose
E. Burnside was relieved of command for his role in the debacle. Although Burnside successfully captured Knoxville, Tennessee, he
was considered and labeled a failure at the Battles of Fredericksburg and Petersburg. The Battle of Fredericksburg, however, is generally referred to as General Robert E. Lee's easiest victory.
Regarding the Battle of the Crater, General
Grant summed it up best for the Union saying it was "the saddest affair I have ever witnessed in the war."
Result(s):
Confederate victory
NEW! Recommended Reading: BATTLE OF THE CRATER: A Complete History
(Hardcover). Description: One sentence describes this massive study - "IT IS EXHAUSTIVE,
THOROUGH, DETAILED AND COMPLETE...IT IS THE MOST COMPREHENSIVE STUDY OF THE CRATER, A.K.A. MINE."
The Crater: Timeline and Battlefield Positions
Details of The Crater, The Petersburg-Richmond
Virginia: Siege
| Union Hand Grenades during Petersburg Siege |

|
| This type of Grenade was used during the Vicksburg and Petersburg Sieges |
This, the longest siege in American warfare, unfolded in a methodical manner. For nearly every attack the
Union made around Petersburg another was made at Richmond and this strained the Confederate's manpower and resources. Through
this strategy Grant's army gradually and relentlessly encircled Petersburg and cut Lee's supply lines from the south. For
the Confederates it was ten months of hanging on, hoping the people of the North would tire of the war. For soldiers of both
armies it was ten months of bullets, artillery, and mortar shells, relieved only by rear-area tedium, heat and sweat,
drill and more drill, salt pork and corn meal, burned beans and bad coffee.

After the initial attacks on Petersburg by Union forces ended on June 18, a portion of the IX Corps picket
line, built under fire, was established only four hundred feet from Elliot's Salient, part of the main Confederate line. The
Federals decided to construct and explode a mine underneath the salient in an attempt to surprise and overwhelm the Confederates
and seize the heights above Petersburg and thereby shorten the siege.

Recommended Reading:
The Horrid Pit: The Battle of the Crater, the Civil War's
Cruelest Mission (Hardcover). Review From Publishers Weekly: One of the American Civil War's most horrific events took place on July
30, 1864: the slaughter of thousands of Union troops, including many African-Americans, in a giant pit outside Petersburg,
Va. “The Crater” was created as a result of a poorly planned and executed Union mission to tunnel under, and then
explode, the Confederate lines, thereby opening the gates to a full frontal assault on Petersburg that, if successful, could
have helped decide the war. Instead, after several hundred Confederates perished in the initial mine explosion, the Union
troops entered the crater—later known as The Pit—and were gunned down. Continued below...
(The scene
is re-created in the novel and film Cold Mountain.) Civil
War specialist Axelrod (The War Between the Spies, et al.) offers a concise, readable and creditable recounting of the Battle of the Crater, which General U.S. Grant famously termed a stupendous
failure. When the dust settled, the Union forces, under the inept leadership of generals Ambrose E. Burnside and George Gordon
Meade, suffered more than 4,000 killed, wounded or captured. The well-led Confederates had about 1,500 casualties. The massive
slaughter does not make for easy reading, but is a reminder of the horror of war at its basest level.
THE CRATER: 5:00 am
After several weeks of preparation the mine was exploded on July 30 at 4:45am. The Union sent unit after unit
into the 200 foot-wide gap created in the Confederate line. The poorly-led Federal soldiers end up heading into the crater
and not around it as planned. |

THE CRATER: 8:30 am
Though the Federals outnumbered the Confederates, they were unable to advance from the crater or easily retreat
from it as the Confederates made both routes killing fields.
The Fourth Division of the the IX Corps, which was comprised of United States Colored Troops (USCT) regiments, were the last to enter the action. In this, their first engagement, they advanced farther than any
other Federal unit. The main Confederate counterattack led by Gen. William Mahone (CSA) arrived shortly
after this, drove back the USCTs and plugged the gap in the Confederate line.
At 9:30 am, Gen. Ambrose Burnside (USA), commander of the IX Corps, received orders to
call off the attack and any more support to the Union soldiers in the crater. The soldiers in the hole did not learn of this
until 12:30 that afternoon. |

THE CRATER: 1:00 pm
With the gap sealed, the Confederates slowly advanced on the crater and, in one final rush, pushed into the
abyss itself. In what was the fiercest hand-to-hand combat of the entire siege, the Union troops, who still outnumbered the
Confederates, surrendered to these determined defenders. As prisoners were taken to the rear, unarmed black soldiers
who had been calling for "no quarter," were now shot down by some of their captors. |

THE CRATER: Aftermath
After nearly ten hours of fighting and a combined cost of nearly 6,000 lives, nothing had changed tactically.
In what may have been Gen. U. S. Grant's best chance at ending the Siege of Petersburg instead became
a symbol of military debacle.
As for the principal players, Mahone was promoted to Major General, Burnside was relieved of command, and
Grant summed it up best for the Union saying the Battle of the Crater was "the saddest affair I have ever witnessed in
the war."
Sources: National Park Service; Official Records
of the Union and Confederate Armies; Petersburg National Battlefield; National Archives and Records Administration.
Recommended
Reading: Battle of the Crater (Civil War Campaigns and Commanders) [ILLUSTRATED]. Description: July 1864. Grant's siege
of Petersburg
is at a standstill. A Federal regiment made up mostly of Pennsylvania coal miners, under the command of Lt. Colonel Henry
Pleasants, secures the reluctant approval of Generals Meade and, ultimately, Grant to pursue an outrageous strategy: tunnel
under the Confederate trenches, and blow up the Confederate troops. The 586-foot tunnel is completed in a month. Continued
below…
Four tons of powder explode in
a devastating surprise attack, killing hundreds of Confederate soldiers. Fearing bad publicity, white soldiers are substituted
for the division of black troops specially trained for the assault. Ill prepared, and without leadership, they charge through
Confederate lines and swarm around and incredibly, into the 170-foot crater, only to be trapped and slaughtered in a furious
counter charge. An absorbing story of extraordinary bravery and incompetent leadership based on first-person accounts.
Advance to:
Recommended
Reading: The Crater: Petersburg. Description: A spectacular early morning underground explosion
followed by bloody hand-to-hand combat and unprecedented command malfeasance makes the story of the Crater one of the most
riveting in Civil War history. Da Capo's new "Battleground America"
series offers a unique approach to the battles and battlefields of America. Each book in the
series highlights a small American battlefield-sometimes a small portion of a much larger battlefield-and tells the story
of the brave soldiers who fought there. Using soldiers' memoirs, letters and diaries, as well as contemporary illustrations,
the human ordeal of battle comes to life on the page. Continued below…
All of the
units, important individuals, and actions of each engagement on the battlefield are described in a clear and concise narrative.
Detailed maps complement the text and illustrate small unit action at each stage of the battle. Then-and-now photographs tie
the dramatic events of the past to the modern battlefield site and highlight the importance of terrain in battle. The present-day
historical site of the battle is described in detail with suggestions for touring. About the Author: John Cannan has established
a reputation among civil War writers in remarkably short time. His distinctions include three books selected by the Military
Book Club. He is the author of The Atlanta Campaign, The Wilderness Campaign, and The Spotsylvania Campaign. He is an historic
preservation attorney living in Baltimore.
Recommended
Reading: The 48th Pennsylvania
in the Battle of the Crater: A Regiment of Coal Miners Who
Tunneled Under the Enemy (Hardcover). Description: In June 1864, Grant attempted to seize the Confederate rail hub
of Petersburg, Virginia.
General P.G.T. Beauregard responded by rushing troops to Petersburg
to protect the vital supply lines. A stalemate developed as both armies entrenched around the city. Union commander General
Ambrose Burnside advanced the unusual idea of allowing the 48th Pennsylvania—a regiment
from the mining town of Pottsville—to excavate a mine,
effectively tunneling under Confederate entrenchments. One of the most inventive and creative conflicts of the war, the Battle of the Crater ultimately became one of the most controversial,
as an almost certain Union victory turned into an astonishing Confederate triumph. Continued below…
With special
emphasis on the role of the 48th Pennsylvania, this history provides an in-depth examination of the Battle
of the Crater, which took place during July 1864. Here, bickering between Federal commanders and a general breakdown of communications
allowed shattered Confederate troops the opportunity to regroup after a particularly devastating blow to their defenses. The
work examines the ways in which the personality conflict between generals George Meade and Ambrose Burnside ultimately cost
the Union an opportunity to capture Petersburg and bring an
early end to the war. On the other hand, it details the ways in which the cooperation of Confederate commanders helped to
turn this certain defeat into an unexpected Southern achievement. Appendices include a list of forces that took part in the
Battle of the Crater, a table of casualties from the battle
and a list of soldiers decorated for gallantry during the conflict.
Recommended
Reading: Trench Warfare under Grant and Lee: Field Fortifications in the
Overland Campaign
(Civil War America) (Hardcover) (The University of North Carolina Press) (September
5, 2007). Description: In the study of field fortifications in the Civil War that began with Field Armies
and Fortifications in the Civil War, Hess turns to the 1864 Overland campaign to cover battles from the Wilderness to Cold Harbor. Continued
below...
Drawing on
meticulous research in primary sources and careful examination of trench remnants at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, North Anna,
Cold Harbor, and Bermuda Hundred, Hess describes Union and Confederate earthworks and how Grant and Lee used them in this new era of field
entrenchments.
Recommended
Reading: Field Armies and Fortifications in the Civil War: The Eastern Campaigns,
1861-1864 (Civil War America) (Hardcover). Description: The eastern campaigns of the Civil War involved the widespread use of field fortifications, from Big Bethel and the
Peninsula to Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Charleston,
and Mine Run. While many of these fortifications were meant to last only as long as the battle, Earl J. Hess argues that their
history is deeply significant. The Civil War saw more use of fieldworks than did any previous conflict in Western history.
Hess studies the use of fortifications by tracing the campaigns of the Army of the Potomac
and the Army of Northern Virginia from April 1861 to April 1864. He considers the role of field fortifications in the defense
of cities, river crossings, and railroads and in numerous battles. Continued below...
Blending technical
aspects of construction with operational history, Hess demonstrates the crucial role these earthworks played in the success
or failure of field armies. He also argues that the development of trench warfare in 1864 resulted from the shock of battle
and the continued presence of the enemy within striking distance, not simply from the use of the rifle-musket, as historians
have previously asserted. Based on fieldwork at 300 battle sites and extensive research in official reports, letters, diaries,
and archaeological studies, this book should become an indispensable reference for Civil War historians.
|