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The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater “the Horrid Pit” June 25-August 6, 1864 by Michael Arthur Cavanaugh

Book Summary: This is a book in the Virginia Civil War Battles and Leaders series. The title of this book is a bit of a misnomer, since the First Battle of Deep Bottom is also covered, in effect chronicling Grant’s entire Third Offensive against Petersburg. Grant sent Hancock’s II Corps north of the James, and his attack drew many Confederates from the Petersburg trenches. After this, the Pennsylvania miners exploded the mine they had dug under the Confederate trenches east of Petersburg and a tragedy unfolded. While two Union IX Corps Generals, Ledlie and Ferrero, got drunk in a bombproof, their men jammed into the new Crater created by the explosion and milled about instead of pressing the attack. The initially bewildered Rebels quickly recovered and attacked to the edge of the Crater. Thousand were killed, wounded and captured, for absolutely no gain. Burnside lost his command as a result of the debacle and the Confederates quickly redug trenches where the Crater was located. This is a very good book on the Crater. The maps were good and showed the terrain very well, but they almost never went down to regimental level. This book is a must-have for fans of this campaign. For most books in the series, I would recommend getting them from C. Clayton Thompson. He offers great prices and usually has these available. 183 pp., 9 maps

Hardcover Edition

ISBN: 978-0930919771

Publisher: H.E. Howard (2nd Edition)

Release Date: June 1989

Pages: 183 Pages

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