Happy Birthday Battle Of The Crater

[john boland]

July 30th marks the 146th anniversary of The Battle Of The Crater fought in Petersburg, Virginia. The Union troops attempted to dig a tunnel underneath the Confederate lines and place massive amounts of TNT in hopes of blowing the position to Kingdom Come. Even though many Southern soldiers died in the explosion, the plan backfired for the Union as hordes of their troops rushed down in the crater the explosion left in the aftermath and were siiting ducks from that point on as snipers and sharpshooters picked them off at will. Happy Birthday Battle Of The Crater still one of my favorite Civil War Battles. I guess the lesson the Union could have learned from this fiasco can be summed up by what my old First Sergeant used to say in that "It was good incentive, but bad judgement".

[RichardS]

To the men of both sides who fought and died in the Crater.

[KICK]

Boom!

another missed opportunity in a long line of missed opportunities that can be blamed on poor leadership.

but it was a helluva idea.

[hellboy30]

Yep. Went off with a bang & ended in a whimper. Brilliant plan, poor execution.