The 48th Pennsylvania in the Battle of the Crater follows the remarkable series of events that led to one of the most unusual engagements of the Civil War.  

Recruited exclusively in the coal regions, the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry Regiment contained a large number of experienced miners.  When the Union army lay siege to the city of Petersburg, Virginia in the summer of 1864, these men found themselves entrenched just one hundred yards from a heavily defended Confederate fortress.  Led by Lt. Colonel Henry Pleasants of Pottsville, Pa., the miners tunneled beneath the fort and planted a massive gunpowder charge.  

The resulting explosion destroyed the Confederate stronghold, killing most of its occupants.  But Federal officers squandered the extraordinary opportunity.  Rather than a swift Union victory that could have brought an early end to the war, the Battle of the Crater turned into a bloody debacle that Ulysses S. Grant described as “the saddest affair I have witnessed in the War.” 

Far more than a narrative of tactics and troop movements, The 48th Pennsylvania in the Battle of the Crater delves into the human and political elements behind the battle.  From eyewitness accounts of the explosion’s awesome power and its horrific results, to descriptions of the ensuing combat as told by Union and Confederate soldiers, events unfold from a gritty, personal perspective.