No Quarter: The Battle of the Crater, 1864

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.

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.