Schuylkill County soldier killed at the Battle of Peebles Farm | September 1864

Grave of Jacob Shade at Union Cemetery in Sacramento, PA Civil War Petersburg Jake Wynn Public Historian

In September 1864, Schuylkill County’s Jacob Shade was killed at the Battle of Peebles Farm during the Siege of Petersburg. A 30-year-old laborer turned soldier, Shade left behind a widow and children—one of hundreds from the Coal Region who gave their lives for the Union during the Civil War. Read the full story.

Pennsylvania coal miners explode a mine beneath Confederate trenches at Petersburg, Virginia | July 30, 1864

The infamous Battle of the Crater in 1864 began when a mine beneath Confederate earthworks detonated.