No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864

(NYTBR) - ... In July 1864, Ulysses S. Grant approved an ingenious plan for an assault on Elliott’s Salient, part of the fortified line that Robert E. Lee had thrown up to defend the town of Petersburg, Va. Union troops tunneled under no man’s land, hollowed out a cavern and packed it full of blasting powder. On July 30, they set off an enormous explosion that ripped the salient apart. When the dust settled, there was a gaping hole in the Confederate defenses. Thousands of Union troops, including a division of black soldiers, swarmed into the breach. Continued

Photo: "Scene of the explosion Saturday July 30th," Alfred Waud