Virginia Vignettes

It was hellish inside the Crater during the 1864 battle. The day was a scorcher, and a mist of humidity and smoke hung over the hole. One New Yorker tripped over the naked bodies of Virginians originally blown up by the explosion on his way to what appeared to be “a large body of Union soldiers lying as though in line of battle waiting for the command to move forward.” To his horror, they were all dead. Black Union soldiers were in there, too. This was their first combat, and some of them cried, “Remember Fort Pillow!,” referring to an April battle in Tennessee in which black troops had been murdered by their Confederate captors. Their cheer inspired retaliation from Confederates, who saw their presence as a provocation. “Many a dusky warrior had his brains knocked out with the butt of a musket, or was run thru with a bayonet while vainly imploring for mercy,” recalled one black officer. The Confederate artillery general Porter Alexander confirmed this: “Some of the Negro prisoners who were originally allowed to surrender … were afterward shot by others, & there was, without a doubt, a great deal of unnecessary killing of them.”

Further Reading:

Michael A. Cavanaugh and William Marvel, The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater, “The Horrid Pit,” June 25-August 6, 1864 (1989)

This Vignette Provided By

Encyclopedia Virginia - Brendan Wolfe, associate editor of Encyclopedia Virginia