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Category: National Parks

Hand drawn map on discolored paper

Map Helps Uncover Civil War Battlefield Tunnels at Petersburg, Virginia

Posted by: Ryan Moore

The Union ambitiously tunneled 511 feet to reach the Confederate lines during siege of Petersburg, Virginia, in 1864. Unique to this Civil War battle, they set off a massive explosion that created a 170-by-120-feet crater beneath the Confederate lines and stormed the defenses in a failed effort, known as the Battle of the Crater. Thereafter, the Confederates worried …