Into The Breach

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The sound of exploding gunpowder no longer roars across the grassy ravine nestled in Petersburg National Battlefield Park in central Virginia. But to hear park historian Jimmy Blakenship talk about the battle that took place there 140 years ago, you have to wonder whether he can still hear the blast's echoes. "[Ulysses S.] Grant said, 'It's the saddest affair I've witnessed in this war,'" Blakenship says with a shake of his graying head.

The Civil War movie Cold Mountain, based on Charles Frazier's best-selling novel, opens with the Battle of the Crater at Petersburg in 1864, when Union forces dug a 500-ft. tunnel, packed it with 8,000 lbs. of gunpowder and blew up the Confederate line, creating a huge crater that became a deathtrap for their own troops.

The movie was actually filmed in Romania, with soldiers from the Romanian army filling in as extras. But nothing beats the real thing, and the visitor's center began offering well-attended tours of the Crater battle site the week after Christmas to coincide with the opening of the film. In the hour-long walking tour, visitors can see where the idea for the tunnel was hatched by Union soldiers as they looked across a railroad ravine at the entrenched Confederate troops. The opening to the 5 ft.-tall tunnel is still intact, and the crater is still there, although a bit smaller than it was in the 19th century.

Most important, you can hear stories of the soldiers who fought and died there, including those of the black troops, who played a major role in the fighting. "U.S. Colored Troops figured into the Crater [battle] more than you would think if you saw the movie," says John Coski, historian at Richmond's Museum of the Confederacy. One black Union regiment was trained to lead the charge in the battle after the gunpowder exploded. The soldiers were specifically told not to run into the crater that would form from the explosion; instead, they were to go around the hole. Before the battle, they sang songs celebrating their being given the chance to fight. But at the last minute, Union generals ordered the black soldiers to the rear and the white troops to lead the charge. The untrained men ran straight into the hole and became easy targets for the Confederate army. Many black soldiers got stuck behind them and were also slaughtered.

Blakenship hopes more people will come to the park "now that the world knows that Petersburg, Virginia, exists." Civil War buffs, of course, will remember the battle long after Cold Mountain has gone to DVD.

For more about the tour, visit www.nps.gov/pete/index.htm