Battle of the Crater/ Petersburg, Virginia
July 30, 1864
After Cold Harbor in June 1864, General Grant crossed the James River in the hope of capturing Petersburg before Lee could move his army. This plan failed so the opposing armies settled into a siege. Siege warfare can be pretty uneventful, aside from constant sniper shots and artillery bombardment, but one exception to the tedium was the Battle of the Crater. A coal miner from Pennsylvania came up with the bold idea of digging a 500-foot tunnel and planting an explosive charge under the Confederate line. It seemed a bit far-fetched, but Gen. Burnside, commander of the 9th Corps, figured there was not much to lose if it failed, and he approved the plan (see drawing). After three weeks of determined effort, Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants' 48th Pennsylvania Infantry completed the tunnel. Grant expressed doubts but gave it the go-ahead and arranged a diversion to draw away some of Lee’s divisions. On July 30 the explosive charge was ignited: an enormous blast shook the ground like an earthquake and sent dirt, rocks and smoke flying like nothing anyone had ever seen; 170 feet of the Confederate line had been blown up and in it its place was a crater 60 feet across and 30 feet deep. Adding to the uproar and the Confederates’ confusion was a furious bombardment of Union artillery. At first the plan was a great success; then it turned disastrous. While their commander, Gen. James Ledlie, sat back safely out of danger getting drunk, the hapless brigade of black soldiers picked to lead the Federal charge swarmed into the crater, instead of around it, and got trapped there, barely able to move, as more divisions joined the mad rush. The assault turned into a chaotic and confused mob. Instead of overseeing the operation, Burnside was a quarter-mile back at his headquarters, oblivious to what was happening, sending more divisions toward the melee. The Confederates regained their composure from the explosion and proceeded to slaughter the Federal troops “like fish in a barrel.” In all, less than 300 Confederates were killed, compared to 5,000 Union casualties. Grant called it "the saddest affair I have witnessed in this war." Burnside was relieved of command. (Grant reported: "It was a stupendous failure... all due to the inefficiency of the corps commander and the incompetence of the division commander.") After the Battle of the Crater not much else happened for the next several months.
© 2004 David C. Hanson, Virginia Western Community College
