[trisham]

Interesting. I’d never heard of the Battle of The Crater Bomb. I’ve been to Gettysburg twice, and hope someday to visit some of the other battlegrounds.

[AU72]

The Battle of the Crater was to break the trench warfare siege of Petersburg. The idea was to explode a massive bomb under the confederate lines immediately followed by an infantry rush during the confusion.

Has it happened an all black batallion was to lead the assault. But instead of going around the massive crater they first went in and got trapped in the cauldron when confederates recovered and flooded the crater with shot and mortar. It turned into a debacle and the confederates gave the black soldiers no quarter.

[BenLurkin]

Saw it in the 60s. The crater was considerably eroded 100 years after the fact. Can only imagine what it looks like now.

The attack is good example of how a great idea can be execrably implemented and executed.

The Brits did something similar in WWI