Fought during the American Civil War, Petersburg should never have been 'under siege' at all.
Union forces should have seized control of the town in June 1864, but, through a mixture of confusion and incompetence, they failed in their objective, and a yearlong siege followed.
Petersburg is best remembered for the tragedy of the great crater, the result of a huge underground explosion in July 1864, into which the Union Army inexplicably charged, creating a ready-made killing zone.
This unusual tactic was an extreme answer to solving the problem of siege warfare
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