burg proved conclusively that the South could not invade the
North. It was the last gallant attempt of a completely invested
country to strike a fatal blow before the strangle-hold of its
enemy should bring the end.

[Illustration: The Slaughter Hollow

The Entrance to the Tunnel

TWO VIEWS TO-DAY OF THE “CRATER,” PETERSBURG, VA.]

The largest of the national military parks is Chickamauga and
Chattanooga National Park, which comprises 5,688 acres in the
State of Georgia, in addition to nearly 150 acres in the State
of Tennessee, the park being situated on the line between the
States. In Tennessee is located Lookout Mountain. The acquisition
of this reservation began under the provisions of an Act of
Congress approved August 19, 1890.

On the outskirts of Petersburg, Virginia, the remains of Forts
Haskell and Steadman, the scene of the “Crater” episode, and part
of the defences of the capital of the Confederacy which fell
before Grant in 1865, have been preserved as a private enterprise.
For a small consideration the “Crater” and the earthworks will
be shown to the visitor. The Federal forces opposed to Fort
Steadman--at the suggestion of a miner from Chambersburg, Pa., it
is said--constructed a long tunnel from their lines to beneath the
Confederate stronghold. An enormous quantity of powder was here,
and when it was set off a body of soldiers was to charge through
the breach and take the Confederate positions.

The powder was exploded and the plan was successful in so far that
it blew several hundred men into eternity, but when the attacking
column reached the cavity in the ground its men became confused,
giving the Confederates time to reform and to pour in a terrible
fire upon the Union men concentrated in the broken ground below.
The result was terrible carnage of United States troops. The
“Crater” had become a death trap. Nearly three thousand men were
killed in it in thirty minutes, the most disastrous loss the
Federal forces suffered in so short a time during the war.

The “Crater” to-d