Union General Ulysses S. Grant had been desperately seeking alternatives to a frontal assault on the Confederate army. When a Lieutenant Colonel, Henry Peasants, came up with the idea of digging under the Confederate front line and planting explosives, his major general Ambrose E. Burnside was ready to put this plan in action. The explosion ended up killing 352 Confederate soldiers and breaching the front line, allowing Grant and his army to enter the crater that had been created. However, this gave Confederate major general William Mahone the chance to rally his army and trap the Yankees in the crater. Because the Union army was unprepared to make a quick exit from the crater, the Confederates were able to kill off hundreds of trapped men. The Union had many severe casualties, and were forced to withdraw and retreat to their original trenches.
This battle did not end the ongoing siege, but rather led to eight more months of gruesome trench warfare. The failure of the battle, which was viewed as a walk into a death trap, was the catalyst for finding a scapegoat in the Union army. The finger was ultimately pointed at Burnside, who had commanded the troops involved in the attempt and had ordered them to attack. This ended Burnside's military career and he resigned from the army in April of 1865.
Sources:
https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Crater-1864
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/union-forces-stopped-at-the-battle-of-the-crater
https://www.battlefields.org/learn/civil-war/battles/crater
This is a very interesting battle and I had not heard much about it before I read your blog. I did not know that trench warfare had played much of a role during the Civil War because General Grant was more strategic with his military tactics. This military fail on Grant's part where you described his troops being too slow to get out of the trenches and then getting surrounded by the confederate army seems very disastrous, I wonder how this affected the Union Army psychologically and their confidence in winning the war.
ReplyDeletesource: https://www.britannica.com/event/Battle-of-the-Crater-1864
DeleteThis touched on something we noted in class - the beginning of trench warfare, which would be the foundations for the first World War. I find it strange that after the explosives were ignited, Grant marched his army into the crater. This is, tactically, a poor choice, as the Confederates will have control over anyone inside of the crater. That is exactly what happened; Grant was surrounded and was forced to retreat, which changed the course of the War by giving the south another victory. It is interesting to think about what would have happened if Grant had not entered the crater.
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