The American Civil War - This Mighty Scourge of War

The fighting 205

Through the summer of 1864, Grant
intermittently pushed his left farther west,
and Lee countered on his right. Most of the
soldiers' energies, however, went into work
with shovels rather than with rifles. A
warren of forts and redoubts and trenches
sprang up and ambled across the Virginia
countryside. Men fought from behind works
of wood and dirt, and lived in 'bombproofs,'
as they called their rude homes hollowed out

General Winfield Scott Hancock's superb

leadership had made the Federal II Corps

into a redoubtable force. (Public domain)

in the earth and reinforced with timber.

One of the war's most remarkable

episodes, the product of an amazing

engineering feat, grew out of the stalemate

imposed by impregnable fortifications.

Attacking a deeply entrenched enemy

afforded little hope of success, against a

guarantee of staggering casualties. A

regiment recruited in coal-mining country,

the 48th Pennsylvania Infantry, conceived

the notion of digging a tunnel far beneath

the earth's surface that would lead under the

Confederate line, which then could be

blown to smithereens. The Pennsylvanians

undertook the novel project with a great deal

of energy and ingenuity. They modified

ration boxes to use for removing the dirt.

They sent parties out to cut timber to shore

up the excavation. They fabricated a

complex but clever means to exhaust bad air

from the lengthening tunnel and bring in

The fight for control of the Crater developed into a

savage hand-to-hand struggle. (Public domain)