In the summer of 1864 Union and Confederate soldiers were facing each other, stalemated in trenches during a prolonged siege of Petersburg, Virginia. A regiment of Pennsylvania coal miners undertook to dig a mine tunneling under the Confederate works, blow them up and break through, take the town and hasten the end of the war.

The story takes many surprising twists and unexpected turns. It is full of suspense, sound and fury, and in the end . . . well, you will be able to draw your own conclusions.

Dr. Joseph Wagner of the Los Angeles Civil War Round Table, will present a wonderful lecture on the Battle of the Crater, using dual slide projectors to bring us all a marvelous visual of this engagement. Wagner is a retired orthopaedic surgeon who received his M.D. from the University of Toronto. He served as Assistant Clinical Professor at both UCLA and the UC Irvine School of Medicine. He and his wife, Dolores, now live in West Los Angeles. His talk on the Battle of the Crater has been well received by many Civil War Round Table groups, both locally and across the country.

Come join us as we hear Dr. Wagner tell us about the surprises of the Battle of the Crater.

Janet Whaley
Program Chair

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