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No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864

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Richard Slotkin's new "No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864" is a fine addition to the ever-growing mountain of American Civil War literature. The July, 1864, incident is perhaps the best-known episode of the entire lengthy Petersburg Siege - a massive mine under Confederate entrenchments was exploded and a follow-up assault, principally carried out by Ambrose Burnside's IX Corp of the Army of the Potomac, was launched, but turned into a bloody fiasco. The viciousness of the fighting was undoubtedly intensified by the participation of a Union division of "colored" troops, something certain to raise the ire of Confederate defenders. As might be expected from a Professor of American Studies, this racial aspect of the affair is given considerable attention by Slotkin, but what might not be anticipated is the highly detailed tactical analysis of the combat action, with brigade and regimental movements carefully described to develop a full picture of a complex military event. Too often, the Battle of the Crater has been presented as basically a horrendous, confused melee, without form or reason; Slotkin makes it clear that while there certainly was confusion and chaos and incompetence, at the same time there were activities displaying clear tactical thinking and skill. And the author delves deeply into primary accounts to present a vivid picture of what went on. Slotkin makes no apologies for Confederates (and at least a few Union soldiers) who murdered, in cold blood or hot, many of the black troops, but he does present the atrocities in a broader context, noting that when the black units advanced into battle, they were exhorted to "remember Fort Pillow" and to expect and to give no quarter themselves. And many of the counterattacking Confederate infantry received orders to give no quarter, without any indication that they were facing black troops; by 1864, the Civil War had reached a depth of violence divorced from mere skin color.

I can think of few other Civil War military histories that do a comparable job of presenting such a comprehensive tactical portrait of a battle. Beyond question, "No Quarter" is the definitive account of the Crater, and it should be appreciated by anyone with a strong interest in battlefield tactics of the era.

Most American can not tell you much about battles. Most students and adults can tell you what the teacher emphasises. But even in the study of the Civil War most people are only exposed to the fact that Grant seiged Petersburg and Richmond Virginia. Professor Slotkin gives us a fine study of a battle within the seige, the Battle of the Crater. Some folks get information on this battle because it is so unique, dig a tunnel under Confederate lines and blow a hole in the lines and pour troops through. The battle was not huge, a few thousand killed, but it was a fiasco. Slotkin as a American Studies professor give us wonderful detail and shows us open racism involved in the use of black soldiers by the Union. Black troops were trained to do the assault and replaced at the last minute then thrown into the battle and actually shot at by both sides. The battle is a nasty and unfortunate piece of Civil War History. Well worth reading and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

After being warned by other reviewers that this book wasn't detailed enough, I read this others but ended up putting them aside halfway through. Slotkin, though, tells a story that keeps a reader interested. If I could only buy one book on the Battle of the Crater, this would be the one.

Several imaginative officers and men in the Union siege of Petersberg, near the end of the Civil War, undertook the extremely dangerous job of digging a tiny shaft hundred of yards under the Confederate lines and detonating a monstrouse mine that tore a hole in the Confederate defenses. It was a nearly perfect operation, despite hesitancy and confusion at the top.

But the Federals lost the battle and by the end of the day the bottom of the huge crater caused by the explosion was so drenched in blood that it could almost be compared to a bath tub.

What worried me a little as I began Richard Slotkin's book was that it might turn out to be excessive in its political correctness. African-American soldiers, known at the time as US Colored Troops (USCT) were heavily involved in the fighting. The ratio of dead to wounded was much higher than among the white troops who participated. The last thing I wanted to read was that it was the UCST who stood their ground to the end, the white Federals who ran away and deserted them, and the white Confederates who rushed in and slaughtered every black in sight.

Thank God Slotkin is a professional historian and sticks to the rules. There are few editorial interpolations. They come at infrequent intervals and are thoroughly balanced. Of course the USCT were singled out for execution on the field. (There were incidents in which white Federals bayoneted their black comrades.) Some of the black POWs were killed while being marched back behind Confederate lines. It's understandable. How do you avoid race as a variable in a Civil War battle between the Union troops and those representing a slave-holding society. But even at that, there were Confederate officers who tried to put a stop to the murders and abhorred those they could not prevent.

It's understandable too that Confederates in the heat of battle shouldn't spare a despised black man even if he were on his knees begging to surrender. But, as Slotkin points out, the USCT were motivated by their white officers with a slogan like "No quarter!" and "Remember Fort Pillow" -- an earlier engagement in which black suffered disproportionate casualties. The slogans were introduced because the USCT in this instance consisted of green troops who, it was felt, being new and being black, might need an extra shot of elan. And so the USCT, when they were finally sent into the maelstrom, took the slogans seriously and shouted them loudly enough for Confederate troops to hear and respond with equal viciousness. Both sides began yelling, "No quarter!" It was a self-fulfilling prophecy.

There isn't space to describe the battle itself and it was in fact so confusing -- in the book as in history -- that, not being a military historian, I found it hard to follow. Of the several Union generals involved, two of the most important spent the battle back in the medical bunker drinking medicinal whiskey. The USCT, who had been designated and trained to lead the assault, were replaced at the last minute by white troops who were fagged out, reduced in number, exhausted. General Burnside, in immediate charge of the operation, spent his time sending messages, on those occasions when he could be bothered to send messages, in a spiteful exchange with his superior, General Meade, and urging his subordinates to charge into the battle at all hazards without telling them how to do it.

And, man, did they need someone to tell them how to do it. The mine explosion wrecked a salient in the Confederate lines, true, but the Confederates had expected an assault in the area and prepared for it effectively. They responded speedily. After the initial blow, there was a launch window of an hour or less before the Southerners could recover and mount a counter attack. But the assault was slow. And it was made over broken ground. Some Union soldiers stopped to gape at the crater and a few climbed down to dig out some half-buried Confederates. The landscape around the crater was a topological nightmare of which the Union had only the most rudimentary knowledge. Deep trenches in the neighborhood of the crater zig-zagged, running this way and that, some into dead ends. It was like a trap into which some innocent animal had rushed.

I also have to applaud Slotkin not just for his balanced and thoroughly believable story of one of the most brutal and bloody battles of the Civil War -- one of the few in which the bayonet became an important weapon -- but for the effort put into the research. Unless you've done it yourself, it's hard to comprehend how much work it takes to dig up this sort of information, organize it in your mind and on paper, and make it presentable. I've done it a couple of times and respect anyone who can do as good a job as Slotkin has. True, I couldn't follow the various semi-independent movement in the battle, but it's clear that the author did.

The crater outside Petersberg, Virginia, is still there. It's now part of a National Park. But it's been weathered down by 150 years of rain until now it looks like little more than a grassy hollow in the earth. The issues of which the battle was emblematic are disappearing at the same slow rate.

Grant once had an Army that left in the spring of 1864. The overland campaign was a disaster and by the time his army arrived for the siege of Petersburg there were serious morale problems. Alot of the troops wouldn't leave their entrenchments(who could blame them after the prolonged slaughter and attrition of the "Overland Campaign". Grant definitely fought it out"if it takes all summer"and you have to seriously ask if maybe McClelan's 1862 water route might have left Grant's Army in better shape for Petersburg. Lee's Army seemed to be only too willing to fight it out "if it takes all summer".Grant becomes the "Butcher" after the Overland Campaign.Mcclellan said in 1862 that the only way to beat Lee was European style"the siege".
The Crater Mine and battle seems like a "make work" program that seemed a bit harebrained and the top brass seemed to keep a good deniability layer in case it failed,including the Butcher himself.The reason for the black troops is that Grant's Army is so decimated that the blacks were the only fresh troops who might actually try to assault some entrenchments,everyone else has an excuse to stay put(a good excuse too!)The white troops on either side don't care for the blacks,the rebels really despise them. The Union whites think it's time for the blacks to share in taking some really heavy casualties and are only too happy to hug the trenches and let the blacks get an education in how to get slaughtered.
Grant's Army is so bad off that his shock troops under "Hancock the Superb" fidget at the Deep Bottom campaign which was later plugged as a diversion by the embarrassed Hancock instead of a major offensive.So Grant's strategy is about the same as Mcclellan's in 1862. Siege-cut off the rail lines to Richmond and run the rebels out of supplies and time.But before the end Grant decides on approving (with extreme reservation) the Mine and the Crater Battle.Hey what the @&*% something might happen(but probably not much) because even with the mine explosion the rebs still have good enfilading artillery emplacements with reinforcements within easy reach.! So the enterprise seems doomed to failure but Grant can lick his chops and after the failed Crater disaster, blame "Rent a Scapegoat Burnside" and declare the union army can still carry an offensive.Same excuse Sherman uses when some of his troops were clipped off during the Atlanta campaign.To paraphrase Napoleon,"The Death of one man is a tragedy,but the death of thousands is an abstraction"That's what I got out of this book,maybe I read between the lines too much and missed something big! At the end of the book I thought it was a good thing the Confederacy ran out of stuff when they did! another year and who knows what would have happened.

This is an amazing study of not only a horrendous battle, but also of so many issues dealing with American history: racial, political, President Lincoln, sectional differences, bravery in battle, and so much more. Slotkin has a fascinating style, bringing not only the battle, but also all of the personalities involved, into vivid life. This is a wonderful sequel to his LOST BATTALIONS, also must reading!