This map should be examine either after or in conjunction with this website's other pages. Please look through the different layers to see how the Battle of the Crater played out, and click on the various lines and place markers for images and quotes from primary sources.
Conclusion
The dual events of the Battle of the Crater and the burning of Chambersburg on July 30, 1864 serve to highlight the increasingly brutal and modern conditions both on and off the battlefields of the Civil War. At the Crater, increasingly well-designed and complex earthworks forced Union commanders to develop new solutions to break the stalemate (in this case, mining) which led to a poorly executed attack, a messy hand-to-hand slaughter and a Union defeat. It also featured dehumanization of the enemy in the form of Confederate reprisals against black POWs. Simultaneously, the burning of Chambersburg exemplified the escalating cycle of reprisals that rose during the American Civil War as Union commanders increasingly resorted to hard war tactics to subdue the south and Confederate commanders responded in kind. Ultimately, the events of July 30, 1864 illustrate the increasingly modern conditions of the American Civil War and provide foreshadowing for the rise of total war in conflicts to come.