At about 4 in the morning on 30 July 1864 US forces light a mine burrowed under Confederate lines along the Petersburg defenses, blowing a huge hole in the ground. What would become known as the Battle of the Crater begins. #OTD #CivilWar #USCT

What began as a way to keep Union soldiers busy during the long siege of Richmond became an operation to break the Confederate lines. Colonel Pleasants, an engineer and commander of the 48th Pennsylvania Regiment, recommended a mine to his boss Major General Burnside.

The Federals began digging the mine shaft towards Confederate lines in late June and finally made it underneath them by mid July. The mine shaft was over 500 feet long. 8000 pounds of gunpowder in 320 kegs were placed at the end, 50 feet under the Confederate trenches.

The original attack plan Burnside develops uses two Federal brigades made up of fresh US Colored Troop regiments but General Meade rejects the plan (because of racism possibly) and orders Burnside to redo it. He chooses worn out white units to make the attack instead.

Drawing lots to see what units would make the assault, the loser was Brigadier General James Ledlie and his division. Notified the day before the attack, with no time to train and not brief them on the mission, Ledlie was drunk during the assault and let his men get slaughtered.

Federal troops light the fuse before dawn and the gates of hell open, throwing earth and men and cannon high into the air and stunning everyone who saw it. The two South Carolina Confederate regiments just above the explosion cease to exist. The boom can be heard for miles.

When that mine goes off

After what seems like an eternity US troops scramble out of the trenches and race across open fields towards the crater. The original plan is to go around the crater but their attack is uncoordinated and unmanaged; there is no leadership, and the blue mass pours into the crater.

US troops inside the crater and on either side freeze, confusion reigns. The Confederates quickly regain their senses and begin to pour nasty fire into the Federals with rifle and cannon. USCT units following the first wave only add to the confusion and chaos.

General Lee, worried about a breakthrough in his defensive lines, orders Major General Mahone's division to plug the gap. Mahone sends two brigades of Georgian and Virginian troops towards the chaotic fighting at the crater. They get there by about 830 am.

Virginian troops reach the crater and see the mass of blue before them. The sight of Black troops enrages them and they target them first. They charge across open ground north of the crater and pour devastating volleys into the Union soldiers. Men die in literal heaps.

The fight in and around the crater is hand to hand, with the hole filling with blood and human waste. Black soldiers die in droves as they're specifically targeted by Confederates, some are even killed after surrendering. The battle devolves into a turkey shoot.

The fight continued through the morning. The Confederate Georgia brigade began to attack the Federals in and around the crater, making little headway. The fighting continued past noon as the remaining Union units put up a dogged and brave defense of the ground they'd taken.

Just after 1 PM General Mahone sends in a brigade of Alabamians and the Federals begin to retreat. Those who can, make it back to Union trenches. Those who can't, fight where they are. Many more US troops are killed, wounded, and captured. Soon the firing slowly fades out.

As Grant said the Crater was "the saddest affair have ever witnessed." The lines stayed the same and there was no breakthrough. General Burnside would be relieved and many others broken and battered. It was a failure at every level for US troops. A useless slaughter. For nothing.

Also if you're talking about the Battle of the Crater today and you aren't mentioning the service and sacrifice of the thousands of Black US troops who participated, or the racist fueled war crimes Confederates committed, then you're doing history wrong.