During the American Civil War, the Northerners, trying to break the Southern defenses at the siege of Petersburg, set off on the morning of July 30, 1864 one of the biggest “mines” of the war and of all wars in history up to that time.
The specific “mines” were in essence sabotages for breaching strong fortifications or enemy walls. When a classic frontal attack was impossible or would cause heavy casualties, the besieging troops would dig a tunnel from their lines, reaching the enemy’s lines or walls, and place large quantities of slow-burning gunpowder to detonate them. At the critical moment, they lit the fuse and closed the opening with quantities of earth and stones so that the explosion would not spread towards their lines. The aim was to destroy the enemy fortifications, killing or leaving their defenders beheaded.
At Petersburg on July 30 over three and a half tons of dynamite was detonated beneath the Confederate fortifications opening a gigantic crater measuring 52×30 meters and 9-10 meters deep. General Burnside of the North, had selected a division of black soldiers whom he trained intensively to launch the raid, entering the crater shortly after the explosion and securing it, leaving it to divisions of whites to exploit the breach to take the city itself Petersburg. On the eve of the attack, however, at the insistence of Generals Mint and Grant, Burnside changed the division to a white one so that in the event of failure and heavy losses, reactions would not be provoked in Washington that the black soldiers were being used as “cannon fodder for the South”.
At 04:44 the explosives were detonated. The explosion was tremendous and destroyed part of the enemy positions, leaving a significant breach. The Federals attacked with momentum. Then everything went wrong. Moving like a human river unchecked by the officers, the Northmen entered the crater and were trapped between its lip and the mass of their fellow warriors who kept coming.
The Southerners recovered from the shock and started firing blindly while also launching local counter-attacks. What followed was called by General Grant “the saddest affair I witnessed in the whole war.” Southerners called it “turkey shoot”. About 3,800 Northerners were killed or captured in this promising but failed operation, compared to 1,500 Southerners. The crater of Petersburg is still visible today.
