Woman Soldier Discovered at the Crater

In the pre-dawn hours on July 30th, 1864, the Federals exploded a mine amidst the Confederate defenses during the siege of Petersburg.  The result was a crater approximately 170 feet long, 70 feet wide, and 30 feet deep (measurements vary by source).  Attacking Union soldiers charged around and into the pit. The Confederates recovered from the initial shock of the blast and counterattacked the confused and vulnerable Yankees. What became known as the Battle of the Crater proved to be a debacle for the Northern troops while Confederate Brigadier General William Mahone called it a "turkey shoot." Indeed, that moniker proved to be quite accurate as soldiers in gray picked off soldiers in blue trapped in the crater, which ultimately served as a cemetery.

Two years later in 1866, grave diggers in the process of unearthing remains there for reburial discovered the body of a Federal woman in uniform among the male soldiers. The workers noticed that her body was in an "excellent state of preservation." Her hair had been cut short, and she had a delicate face. The cause of death was a gunshot wound through the head. 

Others explained why the bodies were well preserved two years after the Crater.  "One fact has been demonstrated, which is undeniable, that the soil possesses great preserving qualities."  The individual went on to provide a grisly description of the bodies.  "The corpses were as perfect in flesh as the day they were consigned to the pit, two years before.  They were fresh and gory, the blood oozing from their wounds, and saturating still perfect clothing."  

Unfortunately, that is all that is known about the woman soldier whose life came to a tragic end that early summer morning.  According to newspaper articles of the day, gravediggers placed her in a coffin and took her off to be reburied with the rest of her male comrades.  A search of burial records revealed that the soldiers unearthed at the Crater were reinterred at Poplar Grove National Cemetery, so she is more than likely one of the many unknowns who rest there today.  Unfortunately, the register does not reveal exactly where.

There is some question as to where exactly she was killed.  The newspaper article noted that her body was discovered "a short distance in front of that famous place [Crater]."  That seems to indicate that she was not killed in the Crater itself but rather in no man's land.  However, she certainly could have been killed in the Crater, and her body tossed out by the Confederates as they rebuilt the walls around the gigantic hole in the ground.  We will probably never know for sure.

The Crater, 2014
Photo by Mark Hidlebaugh

See a video I made on the 155th anniversary of this woman's untimely death.