The definition of undermine is to “dig or excavate beneath a building or fortification so as to make it collapse”. A secondary meaning is: …”to damage or weaken someone or something, especially gradually or insidiously” (Merriam’s online dictionary). An unspoken aspect is that undermining is done in secrecy: the intended victim is in the dark in terms of when or where the aggressor will strike. The aggressor is literally in the dark, as they pursue an underground course towards the enemy’s defenses.
Petersburg National Battlefield, Virginia, is known for the explosion, detonated from an underground tunnel, or mine, which destroyed a Confederate fort and initiated the Battle of the Crater on July 30, 1864, during the American Civil War.
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Technically, the mining effort to reach the opponent’s line was itself a great success, but the follow through was a failure when the Federals were not able take advantage of the massive explosion to break through and capture the heights above Petersburg, or the city itself. This was not the only tunnel excavated on the lines between the two armies, which eventually stretched from north of the Confederate capital of Richmond, to west of the critical rail and manufacturing center of Petersburg, twenty five miles south of Richmond.
