12 Facts About Henry Pleasants

Henry Clay Pleasants was a coal mining engineer and an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Henry Pleasants is best known for organizing the building of a tunnel filled with explosives under the Confederate lines outside Petersburg, Virginia, which resulted in the Battle of the Crater on July 30,1864.

Henry Pleasants did not live in the United States until he was 13, when he was sent to school in Philadelphia.

Henry Pleasants worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad and in anthracite coal mines.

Henry Pleasants re-enlisted as a captain in the 48th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry Regiment in July 1861.

Many of the 48th were coal miners, and Henry Pleasants supposedly heard his men suggest running a shaft under the Confederate lines.

Henry Pleasants battled a lack of supplies as well as a lack of interest on the part of Union generals until other attacks on Petersburg had failed.

Henry Pleasants was successful in his construction to such an extent that the explosion killed nearly 300 Confederate soldiers.

Henry Pleasants was appointed to temporary command the 2nd Brigade, 2nd Division, IX Corps, June 18,1864, to June 25,1865.

Henry Pleasants was mustered out of the volunteers on December 18,1864.

Henry Pleasants returned to Pottsville after mustering out of the army and resumed his role as a mining engineer for the Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron Company, rising to the positions of chief engineer and then superintendent.

Henry Pleasants died at Pottsville, Pennsylvania on March 27,1880, and was buried in the Charles Baber Cemetery in Pottsville.