The Battle of the Crater: A Complete History, by John F. Schmutz. McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers, 2009. $75.00 (www.mcfarlandpub.com, 800-253-2187), 428 pp., photographs, illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-7864-3982-9. 2009.
It is usually dangerous to tag “A Complete History” on to a subtitle of non-fiction. Such a boastful claim rarely delivers. However, John F. Schmutz’s The Battle of the Crater: A Complete History comes close to being the definitive account of this largely ignored episode of Civil War history. It is puzzling as to why the Crater is absent from the genre’s historiography. As Schmutz correctly points out, the battle has all of the elements of great military history, even historical fiction. Hollywood recognized this and recreated the battle at the beginning of the film version of Cold Mountain.
The basic story goes like this: Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, commanding the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry of Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside's IX Corps, offered a unique proposal to resolve the stalemate at Petersburg during the summer of 1864. Pleasants, a mining engineer from Pennsylvania before the war, proposed digging a long mine shaft underneath the Confederate lines and planting explosive charges directly underneath a fort (Elliott's Salient) in the middle of the Confederate First Corps line. If successful, this would not only cause enormous enemy casualties, it would also open a hole in the Confederate defenses. Then if the Union troops could rush forward quickly enough into the Confederate rear area, there would be little time for the enemy to counter-attack, and Petersburg could end up in Union hands.
Approval for the operation from the Union high command (Generals Ulysses S. Grant and George G. Meade), came begrudgingly. Neither expected it to be a success, but agreed as a way boost sagging morale. Digging commenced in June and Pleasants men worked at a steady pace.
The plan called for the mine to be detonated between 3:30 and 3:45am, shortly before dawn, on the morning of July 30. After the explosion a division of United States Colored Troops (USCT) would lead the assault on Confederate lines. On the appointed day the fuse at first did not take and almost and hour passed before Pleasants’ men relit it. At 4:44 a.m., the charges exploded in a massive shower of earth, men, and guns. Between 250 and 350 Confederate soldiers were instantly killed in the blast. From there a battle ensued and as Grant and Meade expected, it was largely a failure; mostly the result of incompetence by Union officers.
Schmutz’s writing is clear and he often lets the participants tell the story over the course of seventeen chapters. His sources, which come from many different repositories and secondary works, are quite impressive. He describes the planning, execution and the actual battle in great detail. It is during the latter chapters where the story unfolds. Here, the desperation of the Union soldiers as they encounter the stunned Confederates is told vividly. The aftermath of the battle was horrendous. Union casualties were 3,798 (504 killed, 1,881 wounded, 1,413 missing or captured), most of them USCT troops. Confederate casualties were roughly 1,500 (200 killed, 900 wounded, 400 missing or captured).
Illustrations and photographs are well placed within the book and the maps are concise without being too busy. Also included as appendices are an order of battle, casualty statistics by unit, Medal of Honor citations and a list of Union officers killed or wounded. It is not obvious why a similar list for Confederate officers is absent.
The Battle of the Crater could accurately have been called a “complete history” if the author included in the epilogue an overview of how the battle has been interpreted since the war ended. Why has it been so neglected? Also, readers might like to know that the site was not always protected by the Federal Government. At one time or another, so this reviewer was told when working as a seasonal interpreter at the Petersburg National Battlefield for two summers, a museum and a golf course were among the commercial enterprises that stood on this ground. Under the care of the National Park Service the crater is a fraction of its original size, but the mine entrance and air shafts are still clearly visible; a shrine to the brave Union and Confederate troops that is well worth visiting. Those who do will certainly want to consult John F. Schmutz’s fine work beforehand.
Mitchell Yockelson
National Archives and Records Administration
