I have heard some claim that the Union had the chance to inflict a serious, maybe war shortening, defeat on the South after setting off a huge mine,
I also heard the suggestion that one problem was that many of the first lot of troops sent were black and there was less willingness to send them support
(I am not 100% sure of the sources for either of these)
Could the Union have won a quicker victory with better exploitation of the initial shock?
Could this have had any effect on the status of former slaves and especially of black soldiers after the Civil war?