One of my readers was kind enough to leave a link to this video on a previous post, which captured the explosion of the Hawthorn mine at Beaumont Hamel, Somme, France, 7.20 a.m. lst July 1916. The mine was exploded by 252 Tunnelling Company, Royal Engineers using about 40,000 lbs of ammonal. The resulting crater was 80ft deep and measured 150 yds by 100 yds. In contrast, the men of the 48th Pennsylvania loaded 8,000 lbs (320 kegs, 25 pounds in each bag) into the mine. The explosion left a crater measuring 126 feet long at the surface, 69 feet long at the bottom, 87 feet wide at the top, and 38 feet wide at the bottom. Henry Pleasants estimated that it was 25 feet deep.
The last 2 years of the ACW should have given Europeans an idea of what war was going to be like from now on. Maybe the famous Prussian cavalry charge in 1870 reassured them that it could still be glorious.
That’s like saying the United States should have known how difficult foreign occupation would be given the difficulties faced by the British during the Revolution.