Crater
The Mine
Civil War in Virginia

American Civil War
July 30, 1864

After weeks of preparation, on July 30 the Federals exploded a mine in Burnside's IX Corps sector beneath Pegram's Salient, blowing a gap in the Confederate defenses of Petersburg. 

From this propitious beginning, everything deteriorated rapidly for the Union attackers. Unit after unit charged into and around the crater, where soldiers milled in confusion.

The Confederates quickly recovered and launched several counterattacks led by Major General William Mahone. The break was sealed off, and the Federals were repulsed with severe casualties.

Ferrarro's division of black soldiers was badly mauled. This may have been Grant's best chance to end the Siege of Petersburg. Instead, the soldiers settled in for another eight months of trench warfare.

Major General Ambrose E. Burnside was relieved of command for his role in the debacle.

Result(s): Confederate victory

Location: Petersburg

Campaign: Richmond Petersburg Campaign (June 1864-March 1865) next battle in campaign previous battle in campaign

Date(s): July 30, 1864

Principal Commanders: Major General Ambrose E. Burnside [US]; General Robert E. Lee [CS]

Forces Engaged: IX Corps [US]; elements of the Army of Northern Virginia [CS]

Estimated Casualties: 5,300 total

Virginia Civil War History Books for Additional Reading

The Author canvases the whole 292-day campaign for Petersburg and Richmond. Trudeau salts his narrative with healthy doses of official testimony and soldiers' personal accounts to create a brisk documentary flavor of campfire and war council. In minute detail he covers every clod of Virginia soil trod by Grant and Lee in the final days of the war. His telling of the horrors of the Crater and his vignettes of officers are compelling, but overall Trudeau fails to show how Petersburg was "the South's Gethsemane." The author writes about battles more than the Southern soul or the politics of war. Still, he dashes several myths about Petersburg--that Lee's army was starved and hopelessly outnumbered--and provides one of the most arresting narratives of any Civil War campaign. Written with a meticulous attention to its historical background and context, Lee Passarella's Swallowed Up In Victory: A Civil War Narrative Petersburg, 1864-1865 is an engrossing novel of the final year of the American Civil War, centering on the bloody attacks waged on Petersburg through the surrender at Appomattox. The letters and journal entries of a group of fictitious people swept up by the turmoil of war make for a unique story that feels as real and vivid as if the writings had been rescued from forgotten family records. A compelling Civil War story, Swallowed Up In Victory is enthusiastically recommended for historical fiction readers in general, and Civil War history buffs in particular.


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