OLDEST IRISH AMERICAN NEWSPAPER IN USA, ESTABLISHED IN 1928
Category: Archive

137 Years Ago: The Battle of the Crater

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

A monument at Petersburg recalls the remarkable work of the mostly Irish and Irish-American miners from the 48th Pennsylvania regiment.By Ed O’Donnell

One hundred thirty-seven years ago this week, on July 30, 1864, four tons of dynamite exploded beneath the Confederate trenches outside Petersburg, Va. It had been placed there by a team of Irish coal miners serving in a Pennsylvania regiment. The audacious plan blew a massive hole in the rebel line, opening the way for a Union charge that could very well end the war. From this auspicious start, however, the ensuing Battle of the Crater turned into a stunning Union defeat.

The Battle of the Crater was the product of mounting fear and anxiety in the Union in the summer of 1864. Though the Union Army was now in capable hands, with Gen. William T. Sherman closing in on Atlanta and Grant driving Lee’s army south of Richmond to Petersburg, Union morale was sagging. The war was now more than three years old and victory seemed no closer than it had in 1861. And the carnage — Grant’s aggressive drive against Lee had produced an astonishing 50,000 Union casualties. Yet despite losing 30,000 men, Lee’s army was intact. Indeed, part of it was still on the move. In early July, a detachment of Confederate cavalry under Jubal Early struck terror into the hearts of Northerners when it made a surprise sprint to the north, coming within five miles of the White House before turning back.

So, as the massive armies of Lee and Grant stood opposite each other, hunkered down in miles of trenches outside Petersburg, there was a palpable sense of urgency in the air. The time had come, many believed, for bold action. The result was one of the most outlandish military maneuvers of the war.

It began when Col. Henry Pleasants of the 48th Pennsylvania overheard some of his men declare, "We could blow that damn [Confederate] fort out of existence if we could run a mine shaft under it." This was no idle boast, for these men — mostly Irish and Irish American — were coal miners from Skuylkill County. Pleasants, an engineer, considered the idea. With the Confederates so heavily entrenched outside Petersburg, the only options were suicidal frontal assaults or a long, agonizing siege that might last more than a year. If his men could blow a hole in the rebel line, the Union army could pour through before the Confederates knew what hit them. Petersburg would fall, Lee’s army would be surrounded, and the war would be over.

Gen. Ambrose Burnside, in command of the IX Corps, which included the 48th Pennsylvania, found the idea irresistible. It offered him a chance for personal redemption, since he had presided over the devastating Union defeat at Fredricksburg in late 1862. With the strike of a single match, he might go from goat to hero.

Follow us on social media

Keep up to date with the latest news with The Irish Echo

With approval from his superiors, Gen. George Meade and Gen. Grant (both, incidentally, of Ulster stock), work began on June 25. The miners were left to their own devices, since the Army’s engineers dismissed the project as impossible. They managed to scrounge up spare lumber and made their own tools. In less than a month they dug a 511-foot tunnel (with two 40-foot side galleries) that led directly beneath the Confederate line. One potential hitch — ventilation — was solved when they rigged up a coal mine vent system that worked perfectly. Lastly came the explosives — four tons of it.

While the Pennsylvania miners dug their tunnel, a regiment of African-American soldiers trained to lead the assault. They were eager to make a good showing, both to disprove white fears that blacks made poor soldiers and to play a role in the defeat of the slave South.

Everything was in order until the night before the scheduled detonation. At the last minute, Grant and Meade overruled Burnside’s decision to use black soldiers. They feared charges of racism that would come if the operation failed and the black troops became cannon fodder. Unnerved by the sudden change in plans, Burnside lost his zeal. He subsequently assigned a regiment of exhausted troops commanded by an officer known for drunkenness and incompetence to lead the charge.

At 4:30 a.m., a massive explosion erupted under the Confederate line, "bursting like a volcano at the feet of the men," one officer later recalled. It hurled 100,000 cubic feet of earth into the air, leaving behind a hole 170 feet long, 60 feet wide, and 30 feet deep. Nearly 300 Confederate soldiers were killed, while hundreds more fled in confused panic. The Pennsylvania coal miners had done their job and it seemed for a moment that Petersburg would fall within the day.

It was an extraordinary sight to behold — so much so that the Union soldiers hesitated at first, transfixed by the scene. When they finally pushed ahead, they headed into the crater instead of around it, and soon became snarled in a leaderless, chaotic mass. For Confederate soldiers now returning to their positions, it was like shooting fish in a barrel. By day’s end more than 4,000 Union soldiers were killed, wounded, or captured.

Despite the flawless work of the Pennsylvania miners, the great Union victory and Burnside’s redemption were not to be (he was relieved of his command). "It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war," wrote a distressed Ulysses Grant to a colleague. "Such opportunity for carrying fortifications I have never seen and do not expect again to have." He wouldn’t see it again and instead had to settle in for an eight-month siege of Petersburg. It ultimately led to victory, but it left Grant ample time to ponder one of the great "what ifs" of the epic conflict between the states.

HIBERNIAN HISTORY WEEK

July 26, 1914: Erskine Childers’s ship arrives with arms (smuggled from Germany) for the Irish Volunteers.

July 28, 1939: Judy Garland records "Over the Rainbow" for Decca Records, a song destined to be a huge hit in the movie The Wizard of Oz.

July 31, 1893: Eoin MacNeill, Edmund Hyde, and others found the Gaelic League, an organization dedicated to promoting a revival of Gaelic culture, especially the Irish language.

HIBERNIAN BIRTHDATES

July 25, 1894: Three-time Academy Award winner Walter Brennan is born in Lynn, Mass.

July 26, 1856: Playwright and essayist George Bernard Shaw is born in Dublin.

July 28, 1943: Presidential candidate, New Jersey Senator, and New York Knicks star Bill Bradley is born in Crystal City, Mo.

Readers may contact Edward T. O’Donnell at odonnell@EdwardTODonnell.com.

Other Articles You Might Like

Sign up to our Daily Newsletter

Click to access the login or register cheese