Dash into the Crater

On the morning of July 30th, 1864, after a delay caused by a faulty fuse that had gone out at a splice more than halfway to the powder magazines, Sgt. Reese and Lt. Douty entered the mine, relit it, and reported that the powder would explode within fifteen minutes. At 4:45 a.m., the blast sent up a huge column of dirt, dust, smoke, flame, bodies of men, timber, and a gun carriage, and approximately two hundred and sixty Confederates were blown up and buried under the debris. As the debris settled, Union artillery opened fire with about 150 cannons and mortars, Confederate artillery answered, and Colonel Marshall's brigade advanced from the Union earthworks across no man's land toward the smoking crater. Finding the crater filled with dust, clay, guns, and buried men, the lead elements of the brigade stopped to dig out trapped Confederates, slowing the advance and blocking the path to the heights beyond. Although the 2nd Pennsylvania Provisional Heavy Artillery pushed through the crater, crossed the loose dirt, and reformed among the bombproofs to the rear of the demolished salient, Confederate infantry regrouped on the flanks and fired into the flank and rear of the Union soldiers in the crater, causing confusion and intermingling of commands. As more Union brigades emerged from the covered ways and tried to force their way through the Confederate trenches and bombproofs, the crater grew crowded, regiments shifted left and right in search of a breakthrough, and the attack stalled as the Union brigades began digging in and holding position instead of pushing for the Jerusalem Plank Road and Cemetery Hill.

Petersburg, Virginia · United States