page_title: Siege of Petersburg
section_title: Battle of the Crater
hierarchical_section_title: Siege of Petersburg / Battle of the Crater
caption_attribution_description: English: Entrance to tunnel
context_page_description: The Richmond–Petersburg Campaign was a series of battles around Petersburg, Virginia, fought from June 9, 1864, to March 25, 1865. Fought during the American Civil War, it is more popularly known as the Siege of Petersburg. But it was not a classic military siege, in which a city is usually surrounded and all supply lines are cut off. Nor was it strictly limited to actions against Petersburg. The campaign consisted of nine months of trench warfare in which Union forces commanded by Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant assaulted Petersburg unsuccessfully. Then the Union Army constructed trench lines that eventually extended over 50 miles. They ran from the eastern outskirts of Richmond, Virginia, to around the eastern and southern outskirts of Petersburg. Petersburg was critical to the supply of Confederate Lieutenant General Robert E. Lee's army and the Confederate capital of Richmond. Numerous raids were conducted and battles fought in attempts to cut off the railroad supply lines through Petersburg to Richmond. Many of these caused the lengthening of the trench lines, overloading dwindling Confederate resources.
context_section_description: At this point in the siege, Lee's army had strengthened the Petersburg line. They dug breastworks out of rifle pits. At night, with pick and shovel, they then turned the breastworks into 6 feet (1.8 m) deep trenches. Pointed stakes turned outwards were designed to break up any frontal attacks. The area between the two lines became a no man's land. The summer that year was hot and dry. Streams and springs were quickly drying up causing a water shortage on both sides. The siege was quickly becoming a stalemate.
  
   
  At a part of the Union line that was only 500 feet (150 m) from the Confederate line, the 48th Pennsylvania regiment was dug in. They were below the top of a ridge and part of their lines could not be seen by Confederates, blocked by the terrain. The 48th Pennsylvania regiment was made up of anthracite coal miners. Their commander heard his men remark, "We could blow that damned fort out of existence if we could run a mine shaft under it!" He passed the idea up to Burnside who agreed to the idea and digging started on June 25. Confederates on the ridge began to hear the sounds of picks and shovels under them. They dug several listening shafts. But when the digging sounds stopped on 23 July, they quit looking and dismissed any danger from mining. By the afternoon of July 28 the explosives were ready. Burnside's Fourth Division, including nine regiments of African American troops were trained to bypass the crater the explosion would cause and attack immediately after the explosion. These were fresh troops and their morale was high. At the last minute, Burnside's plan was changed by his commander General Meade to send in white troops. Meade said he did not want to be responsible for the "massacre" of colored troops.
  Just before 5:00 am the explosion blew up a Confederate artillery battery and most of an infantry regiment. The blast killed at least 278 Confederates instantly. The crater caused by the explosion was more than 170 feet (52 m) long, 60 feet (18 m) across and 30 feet (9.1 m) deep. Following the explosion, the untrained Union troops were slow to leave their trenches. Instead of avoiding the crater they ran right into it. The walls of the crater exposed red clay making them too slippery to climb out of. The Confederates recovered quickly and began firing down directly on the Union troops who were unprotected. To try to save the situation, after four hours of fighting Burnside ordered the black troops to attack. At this point they could only follow the white soldiers into the crater. They had to force their way past the dead, wounded and demoralized white troops to get into the fight. As more Confederates joined in, they set up a tremendous crossfire into the crater. Mortar shells were dropped on the Union troops and the Confederate cannons were rolled up to the edge and fired canister shot at the soldiers trapped in the crater. The situation quickly turned from a one-sided battle into a race riot. As Union soldiers surrendered, black soldiers were given no quarter. Those who were allowed to surrender were murdered by Confederate troops as they were marched to the rear. Some Confederates later expressed regret that they could not kill them fast enough, as a few black troops made it to the rear alive.
  The fighting went on for eight and a half hours. Burnside's IX Corps suffered 3,800 casualties. Lee's army lost about 1,500 who were killed, wounded or missing. But the black troops lost 1,327 men, 450 of whom surrendered. Most of these were murdered by Confederate soldiers as they were marched to the rear under guard. The failure and horror over what happened at the Battle of the Crater caused Burnside to be relieved of his command. He was placed on indefinite leave of absence with no orders to return to duty. This effectively ended his army career. He resigned from the army less than nine months later, on April 15, 1865.
caption: Entrance to the tunnel
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