FREE: Battle of the Crater Commemorative Stamp. First Day Cover

The listing, Battle of the Crater Commemorative Stamp. First Day Cover has ended.

On 30 July 2014 the USPS issued the Battle of the Crater Commemorative Stamp. These First Day Cover are stamped with the date July 30, 2014 which is the 150th Anniversary of the Battle of the Crater.

Battle of the Crater and the role of U.S. Colored Troops A long siege of 10 months ensued, despite a Union attempt on July 30 to blast through Confederate defenses at
the Battle of the Crater. After digging a 500-foot tunnel under a Confederate strongpoint, a regiment of Pennsylvania coal miners in Gen. Ambrose E. Burnside’s Ninth Corps (Army of the Potomac) set off a massive explosion. Union soldiers charged into the resulting crater but became sitting ducks for Confederates as they tried to climb its steep sides. Grant called the battle “a stupendous failure.” As in the initial June assault, black troops participated in the fighting at the Battle of the Crater. However, by the time the all-black Fourth Division of the Ninth Corps entered the battle, the crater was clogged with Federal troops and their offensive was stalling. As Confederates counterattacked, according to witnesses, they became enraged at the sight of black soldiers and killed many who were essentially trapped in the crater and attempting to surrender. The Fourth Division lost more than 1,000 men, nearly 40 percent of the Ninth Corps’ losses that day. After the Union defeat at the Battle of the Crater, both sides settled into trench warfare that lasted another eight months. The battle caused a decline in Northern morale and nearly prevented Lincoln from winning a second term as president. The Petersburg Campaign ultimately led to Richmond and to the South’s surrender at Appomattox.