Search results
Feb 8, 2019 · Discover The Crater in Petersburg, Virginia: An innovative attempt to break a siege in the American Civil War still scars the earth today.
Once complete, this mine could be packed with enough explosives to open a hole in the Confederate lines. This idea was seized upon by their commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Henry Pleasants. A mining engineer by trade, Pleasants approached Burnside with the plan arguing that the explosion would take the Confederates by surprise and would ...
During the Civil War, Petersburg, Virginia, was an important railhead, where four railroad lines from the south met before they continued to Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy. Most supplies to General Lee's army and Richmond funneled through that location.
- July 30, 1864( 1864-07-30)
- Confederate victory [1]
A plan to tunnel beneath Confederate defenses at Petersburg and blast a huge hole inadvertently became a crater of death for Union soldiers. This article appears in: Early Spring 2016. By John Walker. It was just after 3 am on Saturday, July 30, 1864.
Jun 28, 2019 · The Union ambitiously tunneled 511 feet to reach the Confederate lines during siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864. Unique to this Civil War battle, they set off a massive explosion that created a 170-by-120-feet crater beneath the Confederate lines and stormed the defenses in a failed effort, known as the Battle of the Crater.  ...
Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia, is known for the explosion, detonated from an underground tunnel, or mine, which destroyed a Confederate fort and initiated the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, during the American Civil War.
Jul 30, 2020 · Pleasants proposed to dig a mine running from the Federal lines and under Elliott’s Salient on the high ground within the Confederate line. A large gallery would be excavated and packed with black powder and ignited. This would blow a huge hole in the enemy line, opening a clear path to Petersburg.
