'Burglar's Plan': Storming The Fort Hill Crater

Poliorcetic art from Vicksburg, 1863

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Alfred Edward Mathews, an enlisted soldier of the 31st Ohio Infantry Regiment, created this lithograph the same year as the bloody assault it depicts. He witnessed the very first siege mine ever detonated in North America to create the breach. It is a striking view of how “trench warfare” emerged during the 19th century industrial revolution — a k…