This Day in History

[Amnorix]

Today...

[Amnorix]

July 22

1456. The Ottoman Empire's siege of Belgrade is lifted. Three short years earlier, the Ottoman Empire had captured Constaninople, which was defended by one of -- if not THE -- best fortifications on earth, though those defenses were undermanned. At the time, the young Sultan, Mehmet II, had already established his reputation, and that of his army, as among the best in the world. During this time, the Christian state of Hungary, which bordered the Empire, decided not to intervene for a number of reasons, including the fact that it was not yet prepared to fight. This, despite the fact that its leader, John Hunyadi, was perfectly aware that he would be the next target of the frightening Ottoman war machine.

Hunyadi instead spent his time preparing his defenses and his men. As expected, the Ottoman Empire next sought to conquer Hungary and continue its relentless expansion into Europe. Belgrade, then a border fortress, was besieged on July 4th. Hunyadi led a valiant defense, including a surprise counterattack that overran the Turkish camp. Mehmet withdrew his forces, realizing that he was unable to effectuate a successful siege at this time.

Although Hunyadi and many of his men would be dead within the month due to an outbreak of plague among his troops, the implications of this Ottoman defeat would be far-reaching. The Ottoman Empire's advance was checked until 1521 -- 70 years later -- when the Ottomans would finally capture Belgrade. In the meantime, the empire would begin the slow and painful process of absorbing Bosnia and Serbia into the Empire in order ot ensure that those areas served as a stable source of support for future operations -- an effort that has implications to this day. Hungarian resistance to Ottoman incursions would also become a thing of legend, and Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia (the Impaler, i.e. Dracula) and Stephen III would come to power under Hunyadi, and continue heroic Hungarian resistance.

Ultimately, in 1526 the Ottomans would conquer most of Hungary, then be checked at the siege of Vienna in 1529 which led to 150 years of on-again, off-again wars and heightened tensions between various European powers and the Ottomans until the Battle of Vienna in 1683 began to roll back the Ottoman tide.

1796. General Moses Cleaveland, supervisor of a surveyor party for the Connecticut Land Company, names an area of the Ohio Valley after himself following his discovery.

1864. Outside Atlanta, Georgia, Hood attacks Sherman's troops at Bald Hill. The attack (again) fails.

1894. The first motorized racing event ever is held, in France between the cities of Paris and Rouen. History is silent as to whether any of the observers consume Budweiser.

1934. John Dillinger, an extremely dangerous criminal who had robbed over two dozen banks, shot and killed several police officers, and escaped prison twice, is shot and killed outside Chicago's Biograph Theater. He had gone there to see, fittingly, a gangster movie starring Clark Gable. He was accompanied by two ladies including one who, supposedly, wore a red dress to help the FBI identify Dillinger.

Unsurprisingly, J. Edgar Hoover, the Director of the FBI and a man who did not believe in having rivals for publicity, squeezed the man who led the team that killed Dillinger (the unfortunately named Melvin Purvis) out of the FBI. Purvis would go on to become a Colonel in the US Army during World War II.

2003. Members of the US 101st Airborne, aided by special forces, attack a compound near Mosul, Iraq killing Saddam Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay, along with Qusay's 14 year old son Mustapha. The sons were heavily involved in operating Saddam Hussein's rulership over Iraq.

[Amnorix]

July 23

1862. Henry W. Halleck ("Old Brains") takes over as Commander in Chief of the Union Army. Lincoln appoints him in hopes of coordinating all Union armies and spurring the thus-far slow and reluctant Union commanders into action. He would be sorely disappointed in this, and would soon refer to him as "little more than a first rate clerk." And yet, Halleck would serve until the end of the war as a highly efficient administrator of the war effort. He would be replaced by Grant (his former subordinate in the West) as commander-in-chief, but Grant would stay with the Army of the Potomac, leaving administrative details to Halleck in Washington.

Originally Posted by Historian Steven Woodworth

Beneath the ponderous dome of his high forehead, the General would gaze goggle-eyed at those who spoke to him, reflecting long before answering and simultaneously rubbing both elbows all the while, leading one observer to quip that the great intelligence he was reputed to possess must be located in his elbows

1903. Ford Motor Company sells its first car.

1914. Austria-Hungary issues a demand to Serbia for Serbia to allow it to investigate the death of its crown prince, Franz Ferdinand. Serbia will refuse.

1984. Vanessa Williams resigns as Miss America after nude pictures of her are published in Penthouse.

[Amnorix]

July 24

1148. Louis VII, King of France, leading the armies of the Second Crusade, begins the Siege of Damascus. Intending on besieging from the west of the city, where food supplies were more plentiful, the Crusaders quickly move to the eastern side of the city, which is less well defended. Muslim armies move to block a return to the prior position, and the Crusaders soon realize they have made a grave (no pun intended) error. Soon thereafter they lift the siege and begin marching across Anatolia, during hte course of which much of their army is destroyed. Accusations of betrayal between the various Crusader states (internally) and between the Crusader states as a group and the Christian Byzantine Empire cause serious consequences across the next several centuries. Indeed, other than the incidental but still significant victory of armies gathering to conduct the Second Crusade kicking the Muslims out of Lisbon on the way, the entire Second Crusade was an abject failure.

1701. Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founds the trading post at Fort Pontchartrain, later to be known as Detroit, Michigan.

1911. Hiram Bingham III rediscovers Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Incas.

1935. The "Dust Bowl" heat wave during the Great Depression hits its peak, with temperatures of 109 degrees recorded in Chicago and 104 in Milwaukee.

1943. Operation Gamorrah begins, targetting Hamburg. A critical military-commercial city, Hamburg was a large port city with shipyards, U-Boat pens, oil refineries and, amusingly, teh world's oldest manufactery of dynamite, built by the inventor of dynamite himself, Alfred Nobel (Nobel peace prize anyone?). As such, Hamburg was repeatedly targetted by Allied bombing. On this date, 1943, Operation Gamorrah began, lasting 8 days and 7 nights. The operation entailed continues bombing with British and Canadian sorties being flown by night, and American attacks by day. Several attacks involved sorties of over 700 bombers.

On July 27th, the unusually hot, dry weather contribued to the effects of the 739 bombers that attacked the city, creating a "firestorm" a huge tornadic inferno of fire with winds of up to 150 mph and 1,500 degrees fahrenheit reaching altitudes of 1,000 feet and absolutely incinerating eight square miles of the city. Even the asphalt streets burst into flame, and the oil, gasoline and other chemical spilling into the bay caused the surface of the ocean itself to erupt. Those seeking shelter in bomb and fallout shelters suffocated as the immense fires consumed all oxygen above. In all, the week's effort destroyed approximately 280,000 buildings, including 250,000 residences, killed 50,000 people, and rendered approximately one million homeless.

1983. The "Pine Tar Incident."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrFzGbM_g4Y

1990. Iraqi forces start massing on the border with Kuwait.

[Amnorix]

July 25

1261. Forces belonging to one of the city-states formed by the Byzantine Emperor after the fall of Constantinople to Latin forces during the Fourth Crusade (in 1204) sneak into the city, attack the walls from the inside, open the gates, and reconquer the city. "Emperor" Baldwin II, who among other notable acts during his reign pawned the Crown of Thorns in 1237 to Venetian merchants, and the other leading Latin nobles successfully fled the city.

1866. Congress passes legislation authorizing the rank of General of the Army. This is a four star rank, and only one person was permitted to hold such rank at one time. Grant will be the first to hold it, and then Sherman will be elevated to the rank upon Grant's election as President. By act of Congress in 1888, the rank will be conferred upon Philip Sheridan, then in failing health. The rank will then be disbanded for a time after Sheridan's death later that same year.

In 1944 legislation will pass authorizing a new version of the rank General of the Army, this time with five stars, as well as Fleet Admiral. The rank of General of the Armies is intended to put America's most senior military officers into parity with British officers holding the rank of Field Marshal. The first person appointed to the new five star is George Marshall, and then Douglas MacArthur two days later. Marshall's prior appointment, however, means he outranks MacArthur due to time in grade. Two days after that Dwight Eisenhower is appointed, then Henry (Hap) Arnold the following day. Six years later Omar Bradley will be elevated to five stars.

The United States decided not to employ the rank of "Field Marshal" like a number of other countries because one holding the post is often referred to as a Marshal, which might cause confusion with US Marshals, who are law enforcment officers, and the fact that George Marshall would clearly be promoted to the rank, creating the seemingly undignified title of "Field Marshal Marshall".

The five star rank is still technically available and could be bestowed during time of war with Congressional approval, but no one has held the rank since Bradley's retirement.

This rank is not to be confused with the rank of General of the Armies, which is considered a higher rank, and has only been held by two people -- George Washington during the Revolutionary War, and Black Jack Pershing during World War I. When the new five star rank was introduced in 1944, it was determined that Pershing (who was still alive at the time) would still outrank all of these newly minted five stars. Washington was retroactively promoted to the rank of General of the Armies in 1976, as part of the bicentennial celebrations, when an Act of Congress made it clear that the rank outranked all other ranks of the Army, past and present.

1869. Local Japanese rulers, or daimyo, begin returning land to the Emperor as part of the Meiji Restoration.

1943. Benito Mussolini is forced out of office by his own cabinet.

1946. In a New Jersey nightclub, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin perform together for the first time.

1978. Louise Brown, the world's first "test tube baby" is born.

[Amnorix]

July 26

811. Battle of Pliska. The last in a long series of battles between the forces of the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire and Bulgaria, the Bulgarians ambush and slaughter the vast majority of the entire Byzantine Empire, killing the Emperor and seriously wounding his son. Afterwards, Khan Krum used the skull of the Emperor, Nicephorus, as a drinking cup -- one of the best documented instances of the "skull cup".

The dramatic defeat led Byzantium to avoid fighting the Bulgars for nearly 150 years, leading Bulgaria to vastly increase its territory and influence and creating the First Bulgarian Empire. That empire would be put to the sword by one of the greatest of all Byantine Emperors, Basil II ("Bulgarslayer").

1861. Following the Union's disastrous showing at the First Battle of Bull Run, George B. McClellan is appointed as commander in chief of the Army of the Potomac. He will raise training standards and morale tremendously during his tenure, but his complete lack of aggressiveness and wavering attitude towards how, and perhaps even whether, to win the war against the South will greatly tarnish his legacy. Eventually, believing in his misguided megalomania that Lincoln is a fool, he will run against Lincolin in the 1864 elections, losing decisively with even the majority of the Union troops who served under him, and who genuinely had loved him, voting for Lincoln.

Originally Posted by George McClellan

Lincoln is the original gorilla.

Originally Posted by George McClellan (regarding Lincoln)

What a specimen to be at the head of our affairs now!"

Originally Posted by George B. McClellan

Of all the men whom I have encountered in high position Halleck was the most hopelessly stupid. It was more difficult to get an idea through his head than can be conceived by any one who never made the attempt. I do not think he ever had a correct military idea from beginning to end.

Originally Posted by Union Commander in Chief Henry Halleck, who was himself an extremely cautious general

It requires the lever of Archimedes to move this inert mass. I have tried my best, but without success

Originally Posted by George B. McClellan, who was chronically convinced he was strongly outnumbered by the Confederates

If I am not reinforced…it is probable that I will be obliged to fight nearly double my numbers, strongly entrenched

Originally Posted by George B. McClellan, who carried these worthy goals much too far

It has always been my opinion that the true course in conducting military operations, is to make no movement until the preparations are as complete as circumstances permit, and never to fight a battle without some definite object worth the probable loss

Originally Posted by Stonewall Jackson

If he can handle his troops in the field with the same ability with which he organizes them in camp, he will be simply invincible

Originally Posted by Stonewall Jackson

....he lacks nerve.

Originally Posted by Confederate Commander Joseph Johnston

No one but McClellan could have hesitated to attack.

Originally Posted by soldier in McClellan's army during the ill-fated Peninsula Campaign

we cannot understand why we should entrench ourselves so powerfully, when we came here for the purpose of attacking. Our commander-in-chief is very timid, certainly, and the prospects for a further advance upon Richmond seem extremely slender

Originally Posted by soldier in McClellan's army after Antietam

He made absolutely no use of the magnificent enthusiasm which the army then felt for him

Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln

Are you not over-cautious, when you assume that you cannot do what the enemy is constantly doing

Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln

I have just read your dispatch about sore-tongued and fatigued horses. Will you pardon me for asking what the horses of your army have done since the battle of Antietam that fatigues anything?

Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln

He excels in making others ready to fight.

Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln

If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I should like to borrow it for a short while.

1941. In protest of the Japanese power grab in French Indo-China, President Roosevelt orders the seizure of all Japanese assets in the US.

1945. Barely two months after V-E Day, the Labour Party wins a stunning and overwhelming victory in elections, sweeping Winston Churchill out of power.

1945. The Potsdam Declaration is signed.

1947. President Truman signs the National Security Act of 1947, completely reorganizing the American intelligence/military system and creating the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIA, the Department of Defense and the National Security Council.

1948. President Truman signs Executive Order 9981, desegregating American armed forces.

1990. President Bush (the first) signs the Americans with Disabilities Act into law.

[Amnorix]

July 27

1549. The ship of St. Francis Xavier, a priest who was one of five to found the Society of Jesus (a/k/a Jesuits) and a man reputed to have converted more people than anyone since St. Paul, arrives in Japan after previous sojourns in India, Mozambique and the East Indies.

1694. A royal charter is granted to the Bank of England, which continues as the government's banker to this day.

1789. The first agency of the United States government is formed -- the Department of Foreign Affairs.

1866. The Atlantic Cable is completed, allowing transatlantic telegraph communications for the first time.

1940. Bugs Bunny is introduced in "A Wild Hare".

1953. The Korean War ends when the US, China and North Korea sign an armistice. South Korea refuses to sign, but promises to adhere to the agreement.

1990. Belarus declares independence from the Soviet Union.

[Amnorix]

July 28

(this might be the first time I've gone 7 days doing regular daily updates as intended...)

1794. Maximillian Robespierre is executed by guillotine in Paris. Nicknamed The Incorruptible by his supporters and The Tyrant by his enemies, he had largely dominated the Committee of Public Affairs and had been instrumental in the Reign of Terror which resulted in the death of thousands after the fall of the French monarchy. Prior to the execution he was held in the same cell that had formerly held Marie Antoinette, and he was executed, rather unusually, face up, so that he could behold the blade that would end his lilfe.

1864. General Hood attacks Sherman yet again, and is yet again repulsed, at the Battle of Ezra Church, outside Atlanta. There are about 3,000 Confederate casualties, including a corps commander, against only less than 600 Union casualties.

1896. Miami, Florida, is incorporated.

1914. Austria-Hungary declares war on Serbia for their failure to allow the Astro-Hungarians to investigate the assassination of its archduke. This will trigger a number of mutual defense treaties and therefore, World War I.

1932. President Hoover orders the army to forcibly remove the Bonus Army. (more on this later if I have a chance).

1935. First flight of a B-17 Flying Fortress.

1945. A B-25 flies into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building, killing 14 and injuring 26.

[Amnorix]

July 29

1014. The Battle of Kleidion. Those who have avidly followed this thread will no doubt have noted my several references to the Byzantine Emperor Basil II, the Bulgarslayer. And it was with this battle that Basil cemented his reputation, and his title.

It may be somewhat difficult for those of us here in 2010 to accept, given that Bulgaria has never been any kind of significant factor in world affairs, and that absolutely none of us, I'm sure, studied either first or second Bulgarian Empires, but at one point it was a force to be reckoned with, as this map reflects.



After the Battle of Pliska in 1811 and described only a few posts earlier in this thread, the Bulgarian Empire continued to wax while Byzantium was both distracted with affairs in the East (remember that Islam was on the march during this timeframe), as well as respecting and perhaps fearing the mountainous terrain that the Bulgarians had so tenaciously defended the last time they went to war.

Onto this scene enters Basil II, or Basil the Young, crowned Emperor in his own right in 976. At the time of his ascension there was a complicated three-way war going on between Byzantium, Bulgaria and Kiev, which at that time was an independent or semi-independent state centering around, of course, the city of Kiev in modern Ukraine.

This war resulted in a series of defeats for Bulgaria in the east, which had resulted in the cessation of a number of regions to Byzantium. The Byzantines had assumed that the Bulgarian renounciation of its imperial status would signal the end of an independent Bulgaria, but this was not to be. Bulgaria instead more or less retreated into the fastness of its western mountains and continued to pursue policies antithetical to Byzantium.

Upon his ascension Basil undertook to destroy independent Bulgaria. His first attempt was a complete fiasco, and he was almost captured in the effort. A warrior king who was greatly respected by his troops, Basil was then distracted for over a decade by the Islamic Fatimid Empire in the East, as well as subjugating the rebellious nobles in Anatolia. This accomplished, he once again turned his attention to that constant thorn, Bulgaria, which had in the meantime retaken the eastern Bulgarian lands previously surrendered to Byzantium.

Starting in the year 1000, Basil launched upon a grueling and relentless campaign which lasted for well over a decade and was designed to completely grind up Bulgarian resistance and bring it once and for all under Byzantine rulership. Over the years a pattern emerged with Byzantine forces launching assaults and sieges in Bulgaria proper while the Bulgarians, unable to match Byzantine numbers, launched diversionary assaults in Greece and Macedonia.

Originally Posted by Byzantine historian John Skylitzes

The Emperor Basil II continued to invade Bulgaria each year and destroy and devastate everything on his way. Samuel could not stop him in the open field or engage the Emperor in a decisive battle, and suffered many defeats and began to lose his strength.

In 1014 Bulgarian Emperor Samuel decided to meet the Byzantine invasion force in the field and decide the conquest that he was slowly but surely losing. As was invariably the case during these wars, the armies had retired to winter quarters and Samuel knew that before once again entering the Bulgarian heartland the Byzantine army would need to traverse mountainous passes. And there he intended to stop them.

On this date approximately 20,000 Bulgarians met the Byzantine army whose numbers are lost to history, but was certainly at least double and more likely triple the Bulgarians. The Bulgarians had defended the pass stoutly and the first attacks failed. Basil, who could just as easily have been nicknamed the Relentless, ordered one of his generals to take some troops around the high mountain and take the Bulgarians in the rear while he continued his frontal assaults to hold them in place. This the general did, leading them on a steep and narrow pass. When the infiltrators fell on the Bulgarians from the rear, they fell in disorder and confusion, were unable to defend the wall they had built, and BAsil's direct assaults got through as well. Thousands perished, and Samuel himself barely escaped.

And then came the act that stamped Basil's name, for good or ill, in history. Basil had captured approximately 8,000-10,000 prisoners, whom he ordered separated into lots of 100. Of these lots, he had 99 out of 100 blinded, with the last man having only one eye put out so that he could lead his group back to their homeland. This he did in retaliation of the death of one of his favorite generals, as well as to crush Bulgarian morale.

Basil at this time earned his name of Bulgar-slayer (Boulgaroktonos). Samuel could not bear the sight of his mutilated men and died of heart attack only two months later. Samuel's death left Bulgaria divided, and in four more years of relentless war they finally were completely defeated in 1018 and became a Byzantine province.

[Amnorix]

So, as those who have been following this thread have probably figured out by now, I have some fairly serious interest in non-Western Europe history as well, including in particular the Byzantine Empire. What's the consensus on this stuff? Are you guys rolling your eyes at yet another post about it all, or is it interesting to hear stuff that relates to eras and locations that are traditionally ignored in our Western-centric schools and books?

[Sofa King]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

So, as those who have been following this thread have probably figured out by now, I have some fairly serious interest in non-Western Europe history as well, including in particular the Byzantine Empire. What's the consensus on this stuff? Are you guys rolling your eyes at yet another post about it all, or is it interesting to hear stuff that relates to eras and locations that are traditionally ignored in our Western-centric schools and books?

This is one of the first threads i look for every day. Always interesting stuff.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

So, as those who have been following this thread have probably figured out by now, I have some fairly serious interest in non-Western Europe history as well, including in particular the Byzantine Empire. What's the consensus on this stuff? Are you guys rolling your eyes at yet another post about it all, or is it interesting to hear stuff that relates to eras and locations that are traditionally ignored in our Western-centric schools and books?

I roll my eyes at it.

[Amnorix]

Originally Posted by Donger

I roll my eyes at it.

Yeah right.

In fact, it gives me great comfort to know that pretty much no matter what I write, I know at least one person on here who will read every word of it.

[Donger]

Originally Posted by Amnorix

Yeah right.

In fact, it gives me great comfort to know that pretty much no matter what I write, I know at least one person on here who will read every word of it.

Guilty as charged, you bastard.

[Amnorix]

July 30

762. Abbasid Caliph Al Mansur founds a new city which he believes to be perfectly situated to serve as his empire's new capital. It will soon become in many ways the capital of the Islamic world. Baghdad.

1619. In Jamestown, Virginia, the first representative assembly in American meets for the first time. The House of Burgesses.

1864. The Battle of the Crater. (see next post for details)

1945. Less than a week after delivering critical parts needed for the atomic bomb to the island of Tinian, the USS Indianapolis, a cruiser, is sunk by the Japanese submarine I-58. Although she sends a distress call that is heard by three US stations, none take action. Under the navy's scheme at the time, when she was supposed to have arrived at her destination, she is removed from the Navy's board of ships in transit, even though no confirmation of arrival is sent or received. As a result, the ship is sunk and the Navy is not taking any action whatsoever to save her crew.

About 300 of the ship's complement of 1,196 men died at the time of the sinking. The remaining 880 men, with few lifeboats and many without lifejackets are left in the water to await rescue from the Navy that has no idea their ship was sunk. Four and a half days the men still in the water are spotted by a routine flight patrol, and rescue ships are finally sent. The lengthy ordeal left the men to suffer the tribulations of shark infested waters, without potable water, in the heat of the South Pacific. Only 317 men survived. The loss of life remains the Navy's greatest loss of life from a single ship sinking in its history.

1965. President Johnson signs the Social Security Act of 1965 into law, creating Medicare and Medicaid.

[Amnorix]

July 30, 1864, the Battle of the Crater.

Slightly to the south of the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, the Army of the Potomac under the direct and close supervision of Union Commander in Chief Ulysses S. Grant is besieging the city of Petersburg. The city is critical to the supply situation of Richmond, as the Confederate supply trains travel through Petersburg to reach the capital. As such, the siege is not a true siege in which the defenders are encircled and susceptible to being starved out. Rather, it is a relentless war of attrition, with Union forces ever lengthening their lines and forcing the numerically inferior Confederates to match while repulsing steady probing attacks.

The siege began in early June and is already nearly two months old. There is as yet no sign of imminent success. The Union leadership is anxious for victory. Lincoln's war at this time is facing serious criticism. Despite holding every imaginable advantage, the war is now over three years old, and Sherman's army is seemingly stalemated outside Atlanta while Grant is similarly stuck outside Richmond. Meanwhile, the Presidential elections loom only a few months away, and absent a decisive and strategic victory beforehand there is little doubt that Lincoln's opponent, Democrat and former General George McClellan will win and sue for peace.

Originally Posted by Abraham Lincoln (August 1864)

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceeingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.

On this date 1864 was Grant's best opportunity to end the stalemate before Petersburg, penetrate Lee's lines and destroy the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The idea was brilliant in its simplicity. Colonel Henry Pleasants, a coal mine engineer in his civilian life who led a Pennsylvania regiment of coal miners proposed to his commander, Ambrose Burnside, that they dig a tunnel under the Confederate fortifications and blow it up. Work began on June 25.

The tunnel was four feet wide at the bottom, two feet wide at the top, and five feet high. After over a month of digging, on July 27 the miners carried 8,000 pounds of black powder to the end of the tunnel and placed it into side galleries. They then refilled a portion of the tunnel so the blast wouldn't return through the entrance. Burnside organized a force that would rush into the gap created by teh explosion.

At 3:15 a.m. today, 146 years ago, Colonel Pleasants lit the 98 foot fuse and sprinted out of the tunnel. 45 minutes later, nothing having happened, two volunteers entered the tunnel and relit the fuse. In minutes, a tremendous explosion rocked teh lines and 170 feet of Confederate entrenchments erupted in a huge blast throwing dirt and timbers hundreds of feet in the air. An entire Confederate regiment had simply disappeared. Confederate troops left standing near the blast were dazed and helpless. Immediately 110 Union cannon and 50 mortars, placed as advantageously as possible, commenced firing in support of the imminent Union assault.

The initial Union plan would now have had an attack led by black troops against the Confederate lines. These troops were veteran units who had proven themselves, and had been specifically trained for two weeks on how to carry the works. The commander of the Army of the Potomac, however, General George Meade, was uncertain as to the reliability fo black troops, however, and concerned that if the attack failed he would criticized for not valuing their lives, and face bad publicity. At the last minute, no volunteers coming forward, it was determined to have straws drawn by lot to determine which units would attack. The division of James H. Ledlie, a drunkard with political connections, "won" the draw. Burnside argued with Meade, but Grant sided by Meade and the decision was as he had modified it. Ledlie stayed behind to drink rum while his untrained troops rushed into the crater.

And therein lay defeat, for the troops stupidly rushed INTO THE CRATER. The actual pit that had been created by the blast, rather than around the edges of it and into a direct assult on the Confederate works in an effort to penetrate the lines. Instead, the men rushed into a pit only to find themselves faced with rapidly recovering and reorganizing Confederate troops defending the top of a sheer cliff and shooting down on the hapless men, easy targets.

Originally Posted by Ulysses S. Grant

The effort was a stupendous failure. It cost us about four thousand men, mostly, however, captured; and all due to inefficiency on the part of the corps commander and the incompendency of the division commander who was sent to lead the assault.

Originally Posted by Ulysses S. Grant

It was the saddest affair I have witnessed in the war.

The long but checkered career of Ambrose Burnside would end as a result of this complete fiasco. Burnside had known that he was often in over his head, and nearly two years earlier had begged Lincoln not to appoint him commander of the Army of the Potomac. Nevertheless, when Lincoln ordered him to the command, he had done his best but had failed utterly and had been dominated by Lee at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Previous to that he had also commanded the wing of the Union army in trying to take what famously became known as Burnside's Bridge at the Battle of Antietam. He had therefore been demoted, by the time of Petersburg, to corps commander serving under Meade.

It is ironic that after such a mediocre career and so many spectacular failures he would finally be relieved for a failure which was inarguably not his fault, but rather the fault of the commanders above him, Meade and Grant.

Originally Posted by Bruce Catton, Mr. Lincoln's Army

Burnside had repeatedly demonstrated that it had been a military tragedy to give him a rank higher than colonel. One reason might have been that, with all his deficiencies, Burnside never had any angles of his own to play; he was a simple, honest, loyal soldier, doing his best even if that best was not very good, never scheming or conniving or backbiting. Also, he was modest; in an army many of whose generals were insufferable prima donnas, Burnside never mistook himself for Napoleon. Physically he was impressive: tall, just a little stout, wearing what was probably the most artistic and awe-inspiring set of whiskers in all that bewhiskered Army. He customarily wore a high, bell-crowned felt hat with the brim turned down and a double-breasted, knee-length frock coat, belted at the waist—a costume which, unfortunately, is apt to strike the modern eye as being very much like that of a beefy city cop of the 1880s

His legacy remains, however, those fascinating mutton chops to which he gave his name (though, somehow fittingly, the facial hair is merely a play upon his name): sideburns