The play is set in the Civil War and depicts the plan by a Union officer (Henry Pleasants) to end a stalemate by digging a tunnel under Confederate forces and then exploding the enemy with dynamite.
[2] The cast included Richard Boone as Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, Rip Torn as Lt. Jacob Douty, Onslow Stevens as Gen. Ambrose Burnside, Jack Weston as Wocziki, Ken Lynch as Sgt.
Reese, Robert Carson as Major Gen. George Meade, Sandy Kenyon as Martinson, and Bartlett Robinson as Captain Handley.
[2] The climactic scenes of the crater formed by exclusion, with wounded and maimed soldiers dead, dying, and screaming, was described by Associated Press writer Cynthia Lowry as "a grisly editorial against human slaughter.
"[4] In The New York Times, Richard F. Shepard found the production to be realistic with impressive staging of busy and loud battle scenes.