The explosion took place at 4.45 A.M. The "Crater" made by eight thousand pounds of gun powder was one hundred and thirty-five feet long, ninety-seven feet broad and thirty feet deep. Two hundred and seventy-eight men were buried in the debris—Eighteenth Regiment, eighty-two; Twenty-second, one hundred and seventy, and Pegram's Battery, twenty-two men.
To add to the terror of the scene the enemy with one hundred and sixty-four cannon and mortars began a bombardment much greater than Fort Sumter or battery were ever subjected to. Elliott's Brigade near the "Crater" was panic stricken, and more than one hundred men of the Eighteenth Regiment covered with dirt rushed down. Two or three noble soldiers asked me for muskets. Some climbed the counterscarpe and made their way for Petersburg. Numbers of the Seventeenth joined the procession. I saw one soldier scratching at the counterscape of the ditch like a scared cat. A staunch Lieutenant of Company E. without hat or coat or shoes ran for dear life way down into Ransom's trenches. When he came to consciousness he cried out, "What! old Morse running!" and immediately returned to his place in line.
The same consternation existed in the Federal line. As they saw the masses descending they broke ranks, and it took a few minutes to restore order.
About fifteen minutes after the explosion General Ledlie's Corps advanced in line. The cheval-de-frise was destroyed for fifty yards. Soon after General Wilcox's Corps came in line and bore to Ledlie's left. Then Potter's Corps followed by flanks and was ordered to the right of Ledlie's troops.
The pall of smoke was so great that we could not see the enemy until they were in a few feet of our works, and a lively fusillade was opened by the Seventeenth Regiment on the north side of the "Crater." I saw Starling Hutto, of Company H, a boy of sixteen, on the top of the breastworks, firing his musket at the enemy a few yards off with the coolness of a veteran. As soon as I reached him I dragged him down by his coat tail and ordered him to shoot from the banquette. On the south of the "Crater" a few men under Major Shield, of the [396] Twenty-second, and Captain R.E. White, with the Twenty-third Regiment, had a hot time in repelling the enemy.
Adjutant Sims and Captain Floyd, of the Eighteenth Regiment, with about thirty men, were cut off in the gorge line. They held the line for a few minutes. Adjutant Sims was killed and Captain Floyd and his men fell back into some of the cross ditches and took their chances with the Seventeenth.
It was half an hour before the Federals filled the "Crater," the gorge line and a small space of the northern part of the works not injured by the explosion. All this time the Federals rarely shot a gun on the north of the "Crater."
Major J.C. Coit, who commanded Wright's Battery and Pegram's battery, had come up to look after the condition of the latter. He concluded that two officers and twenty men were destroyed. Subsequently he discovered that one man had gone to the spring before the explosion, that four men were saved by a casemate and captured.
Colonel Coit says he took twenty-five minutes to come from his quarters and go to Wright's Battery, and thinks it was the first gun shot on the Federal side. Testimony taken in the court of inquiry indicate the time at 5.30 A.M.
General Stephen Elliott, the hero of Fort Sumter, a fine gentleman and a superb officer, came up soon after the explosion. He was dressed in a new uniform, and looked like a game cock. He surveyed the scene for a few minutes; he disappeared and in a short time he came up to me accompanied by Colonel A.R. Smith, of the Twenty-sixth, with a few men, who were working their way through the crowd. He said to me: "Colonel, I'm going to charge those Yankees out of the 'Crater'; you follow Smith with your regiment."
He immediately climbed the counter scrape. The gallant Smith followed, and about half a dozen men followed. And in less than five minutes he was shot from the "Crater" through his shoulder. I believe it was the first ball shot that day from the northern side of the "Crater." He was immediately pulled down into the ditch, and with the utmost coolness, and no exhibition of pain turned the command over to me, the next ranking officer. Colonels Benbow and Wallace were both absent on furlough.
I immediately ordered John Phillips, a brave soldier of Company I, to go around the "Crater" to inform the commanding officer of the serious wounding of General Elliott, and to inquire as to the condition of the brigade on the south side. Major Shield replied that Colonel Fleming and Adjutant Quattlebaum, with more than half the Twenty-second, were buried up, but with the remainder of his men and with the Twenty-third, under Captain White, and a part of Wise's Brigade we had driven the Yankees back, and intended to keep them back.
Being satisfied that the object of the mine was to make a gap in our line by which General Meade could rush his troops to the rear, I ordered Colonel Smith to take his Regiment, and Captain Crawford with three of my largest Companies, Companies K, E and B, containing nearly as many men as Smith's, to proceed by Elliott's headquarters up the ravine to a place immediately in rear of the "Crater"—to make the men lie down—and if the enemy attempted to rush down to resist them to the last extremity. This was near 6 o'clock A.M., and the enemy had not made any advance on the North side of the "Crater."
By this time the "Crater" was packed with men. I counted fourteen beautiful banners. I saw four or five officers waiving swords and pointing towards Petersburg, and I supposed they were preparing for a charge to the crest of the hill.
The line and strength of the Brigade from left to right was as follows: Twenty-sixth Regiment, two hundred and fifty men; Seventeenth, four hundred; Eighteenth, three hundred and fifty; Twenty-second, three hundred; Twenty-third, two hundred. In all one thousand and five hundred men, a full estimate.
The first severe attack of the enemy was on the South of the "Crater," which was defended by a part of the Twenty-second under Major Shedd, and Benbow's Twenty-third under Captain White. The enemy attacked with fury. Our men fought nobly, but were driven down their ditch. Wise's Brigade then joined in, and our men rushed back and recovered the lost space. About this time they shot Colonel Wright, leading the [398] Thirteenth Minnesota regiment, and then the Federals slacked their efforts and bore to their right, and multitudes of them climbed the "Crater" and went to the rear of it and filled the gorge line and every vacant space on the North side. No serious aggressive attack was made on the Twenty-third Regiment during the rest of the day. The principal reason I suppose was the direct line to Cemetery Hill was through the Seventeenth Regiment. Every Federal officer was directed over and over again to rush to the crest of the hill.
The Federals being checked on the South of the "Crater" charged Company A, the extreme right Company, next to the "Crater." Captain W.H. Edwards was absent sick, and a few of the men were covered with dirt by the explosion and were consequently demoralized. Private Hoke was ordered to surrender—declared he never would surrender to a Yankee. He clubbed his musket and knocked down four of his assailants, and was bayoneted. There were five men killed in Company A. Company F was the next attacked, and private John Caldwell shot one man and brained two with the butt of his musket. Lieutenant Samuel Lowry, a fine young man of twenty years, and four privates were killed. Company D surrendered in a traverse, and twenty-seven men were killed. Had the splendid Lieutenant W.G. Stevenson been present the result would have been different. Fourteen out of twenty-seven of these men died in prison of scurvy at Elmira, N.Y. Private J.S. Hogan, of Company D, leaped the traverse. He joined in Mahone's charge, and after the fight was sickened by the carnage; went to the spring to revive himself, then went into the charge under General Sanders. After the battle he procured enough coffee and sugar to last him a month. This young rebel seemed to have a furor for fighting and robbing Yankees. At the battle of Fort Steadman he manned a cannon which was turned on the enemy, and in the retreat from Petersburg he was in every battle. He was always on the picket line, by choice, where he could kill, wound or capture the enemy. He feasted well while the other soldiers fed on parched corn, and surrendered at Appomattox with his haversack filled with provisions.
Company C, the next Company, had fourteen men killed. Its Captain, William Dunovant, was only eighteen years of age, and as fine a Captain as was in Lee's Army. lieutenant C. Pratt, a fine officer not more than twenty-five years old, was killed. The command devolved on Sergeant T.J. LaMotte. G and H had two each; I, three; K, five; and B, one; F, five.
The Federals had the advantage over the Seventeenth because there were some elevated points near the "Crater" they could shoot from. After being driven down about fifty yards there was an angle in the ditch, and Sergeant LaMotte built a barricade, which stopped the advance. A good part of the fighting was done by two men on each side at a time—the rest being cut off from view.
About 6:30 I went down a narrow ditch to see if Smith and his men were properly located to keep the enemy from going down to the ravine before I got back. I saw there was a vacant space in our trench. I hustled in and saw two muskets poked around an angle, as I got in the muskets were fired and harmlessly imbedded the balls in the breastworks. I immediately concluded that it was not very safe for the commander being on the extreme right of his men and went lower down. In a short time I again went in a ditch a little lower down the hill, anxious about the weak point on our line. I was smoking a pipe with a long tie-tie stem. As I returned I observed a rush down the line. As I got in the ditch the bowl of the pipe was knocked off. A big brawny fellow cried out, "Hold on men! the Colonel can't fight without his pipe!" He wheeled around, stopped the men until he picked up the bowl and restored it to me. I wish I knew the name of this kind-hearted old soldier.
The principal fighting was done by the head of the column. A few game fellows attempted to cross the breastworks. A Captain Sims and a negro officer were bayoneted close together on our breastworks, but hundreds of the enemy for hours stuck like glue to our outer bank.
The sun was oppressively hot. There was very little musketry, the cannonading had closed; it was after 7 o'clock, and the soldiers on [400] both sides, as there was not much shooting going on, seemed to resort to devices to pass the time. I saw Captain Steele throwing bayonets over a traverse. I saw Lamotte on one knee on the ground, and asked what he was doing. He whispered, "I'm trying to get the drop on a fellow on the other side." They would throw clods of clay at each other over the bank. As an Irishman threw over a lump of clay I heard him say, "Tak thart, Johnny." We all wished that Beauregard had supplied us with hand grenades, for the battle had simmered down to a little row in the trenches.
At 8.10 A.M. Ferrero's four thousand three hundred negroes rushed over and reached the right flank of the Seventeenth. This horde of barbarians added greatly to the thousands of white men that packed themselves to the safe side of the breastworks. Thousands rushed down the hill side. Ransom's Twenty-sixth and Twenty-fifth Regiments were crazy to get hold of the negroes. "Niggers" had been scarce around there during the morning, now they were packed in an acre of ground and in close range. The firing was great all down the hill side, but when it got down to the branch the musketry was terrific, and Wright's Battery two hundred yards off poured in its shells. About half past 8 o'clock, at the height of the battle, there was a landslide amongst the negroes. Colonel Carr says two thousand negroes rushed back and lifted him from his feet and swept him to the rear. General Delavan Bates, who was shot through the face, said at that time that Ransom's Brigade was reported to occupy those lines.
When the battle was at its highest the Seventeenth was forced down its line about thirty yards. Lieutenant Colonel Fleming, of Ransom's Forty-ninth Regiment, came up to me and pointed out a good place to build another barricade. I requested him to build it with his own men, as mine were almost exhausted by the labors of the day. He cheerfully assented, stepped on a banquette to get around me, and was shot in the neck and dropped at my feet.
At this moment of time an aide of General Bushrod Johnson told me that the General requested me to come out to Elliott's headquarters. I [401] immediately proceeded to the place, and General Mahone came up. I was introduced to him, and suggested to him when his men came in to form them on Smith's men who were lying down in the ravine. A few minutes afterwards, by order of General Johnson, Captain Steele brought out the remnant of the Seventeenth Regiment, and they marched in the ravine back of Mahone's men.
By this time General Mahone's Brigade of Virginians, eight hundred men strong, was coming in one by one, and were formed a few steps to the left and a little in advance of Smith's and Crawford's men. I was standing with General Johnson, close to Elliott's headquarters, and could see everything that transpired in the ravine. It took Mahone so long to arrange his men I was apprehensive that the enemy would make a charge before he was ready. A few Federal officers began to climb out of the main ditch until they numbered perhaps twenty-five men. General Mahone was on the extreme right it seemed to me busy with some men—I have heard since they were some Georgians. Captain Girardey had gone to Colonel Weisinger, who was worried with the delay, and told him General Mahone was anxious to take some of the Georgians with him. But the threatening attitude of the enemy precipitated the charge.
The noble old Roman, Colonel Weisinger, cried out "Forward!" and eight hundred brave Virginians sprung to their feet and rushed two hundred yards up the hill. It had not the precision of a West Point drill, but it exhibited the pluck of Grecians at Thermopylae. The men disappeared irregularly as they reached the numerous ditches that led to the main ditch until all were hid from view. The firing was not very great for the bayonet and butt of the muskets did more damage than the barrel. If any one desires a graphic description of a hand to hand fight I beg him to read the graphic detailed account given by Mr. Bernard in his "War Talks of Confederate Veterans."
In a few minutes the enemy in the ditches up to fifty yards of the "Crater" were killed or captured. The whole battlefield of three acres of ground became suddenly quiet comparatively.
Mahone in an hour's time sent in the Georgia Brigade, under General [402] Wright. There was such a heavy fire from the "Crater" the brigade was forced to oblique to the left and banked on Mahone's men. In a few minutes after they landed at the foot of the "Crater" in their second charge.
Sanders' Alabama Brigade came up at this time. Besides his Alabamians were Elliott's Brigade and Clingman's Sixty-first North Carolina. The charge was made about one o'clock P.M., and the Federal artillery poured all its fire on the "Crater" for some minutes, slaughtering many of their own men. At this charge Lieutenant Colonel Gulp, who was absent at the explosion, being a member of a courtmartial, came up and took charge of the Seventeenth in the ravine, where Captain Steele had them. In the charge of the "Crater" under Sanders were Colonel Gulp, Colonel Smith and Lieutenant Colonel J.H. Hudson with the Twenty-sixth, and a large number of privates, especially from the Seventeenth Regiment, which also had a good many in Mahone's charge.
A good many of the Twenty-third joined in the charge, and Private W.H. Dunlap, Company C, Twenty-third Regiment, now of Columbia, was the first man who got in the "Crater" on the south side.
While the men were piled up around the "Crater" Adjutant Fant heard some Alabama soldiers picking out the fine banners within, and he was lucky to get two of them. He laid them down, and in a minute they were spirited away.
A little incident recited by Honorable George Clark Sanders, Adjutant General, illustrates how true politeness smoothes the wrinkled brow of war. He says that he saw a fine looking Federal officer making his way out of the "Crater" with much pain, using two reversed muskets for crutches, seeing one leg was shot off. He said I'm very sorry to see you in so much pain. The soldier replied the pain occurred at Spottsylvania a year ago. This is a wooden leg shot off to-day—then gave his name as General Bartlett, but Colonel Sanders kindly helped him out.
The horrors of war are sometimes relieved with incidents which amuse us. Adjutant Fant tells an amusing incident of Joe Free, a member of Company B. The Adjutant had gone In the afternoon to the wagon yard to be refreshed after the labors of the day. There was a group of men reciting incidents. The Adjutant overheard Free say He had gone into [403] an officer's den for a few minutes to shade his head from the heat of the sun, as he was suffering from an intense headache, and as he began to creep out he saw the trench full of negroes. He dodged back again. Joe says he was scared almost to death, and that he "prayed until great drops of sweat poured down my face." The Adjutant knew that his education was defective and said, "What did you say, Joe?" "I said Lord have mercy on me! and keep them damned niggers from killing me!"
It was an earnest and effective prayer, for Mahone's men in an hour afterwards released him.
In a recent letter received from Captain E.A. Crawford, he says the enemy formed three times to charge, but we gave them a well directed volley each time and sent them into the rear line in our trench. When Mahone came in and formed my three companies charged with him. Colonel Smith told me they charged four times. Cusack Moore, a very intelligent private of Company K, said they charged five times. After the charge Captain Crawford requested General Mahone to give him permission to report to his regiment, and he ordered him to report to General Sanders, and he joined in that charge with his men. Company K had fifty-three men, Captain Cherry; Company E, forty, and Captain Burley, Company B, twenty-five; in all, one hundred and eighteen men.
Lieutenant Colonel Culp was a member of a military court doing duty in Petersburg at the time of the explosion, and could not get back until he reported to me at Elliott's headquarters. I made some extracts from his letter recently received: "I recollect well that in the charge (the final one) which we made that model soldier and Christian gentleman, Sergeant Williams, of Company K, was killed, and that one of the Crowders, of Company B, was killed in elbow touch of me after we got into the works. These casualties, I think, well established the fact that Companies K and B were with me in the charge, and, as far as I know now, at least a portion of all the companies were with me. I recollect that poor Fant was with as very distinctly, and that he rendered very efficient service after we got to the 'Crater' in ferreting out hidden Federals, who had taken shelter there, and who, for the most part, seemed very loath to leave their biding places. I feel quite confident that Capt. Crawford was also there, but there is [404] nothing that I can recall at this late day to fasten the fact of his presence on my mind, except that he was always ready for duty, however perilous it might be, and I am sure his company was there, in part at least. So, too, this will apply to all of the officers of our regiment whose duty it was to be there on that occasion, and who were not unavoidably kept away. In the charge that we made we were to be supported by the Sixty-first North Carolina. They were on our left, and I suppose entered the works entirely to the left of the 'Crater,' for I am sure that our regiment, small as it was, covered the 'Crater,' and when I reached the old line with my command we found ourselves in the very midst of the old fort, which, I may say, had been blown to atoms in the early morning. When we arrived the Federals began, in some instances, to surrender to us voluntarily, others, as before intimated, had to be pulled out of their hiding places. And with these prisoners we captured quite a number of colors, probably as many as a dozen, certainly not less than eight or ten. I was so occupied in trying to clear the trenches of the enemy that I gave no attention to these colors after they fell into the hands of our men, and afterwards learned, to my sorrow, that they had fallen into hands which were not entitled to them. Suffice it to say that few, if any of them, could be found. After perfect quiet had been restored, and we were thus robbed of these significant trophies of our triumph at which we felt quite a keen disappointment, it is pleasing to me to say that I think that every man of our regiment who was present acted his part nobly in the performance of the hazardous duty assigned us on that memorable occasion. * * * You gave me the order to make the final charge already referred to."
The Confederates only had twenty-six cannon, and only three of them were conspicuous. The Federals had one hundred and sixty-four cannon and mortars. They fired five thousand and seventy-five rounds. They had only one man killed and two wounded.
General Hunt and others spoke slightingly of our guns, with two exceptions, Wright's Battery and Davenport's, which is mentioned as the two-gun battery. General Hunt the day before had accurately [405] prepared to silence all these guns, except the Davenport Battery. General Hunt said he expected a company of infantry would take us in fifteen minutes after Pegram's Battery was gone. But the Wright Battery was a complete surprise. It was constructed just behind Ransom's Brigade, about one hundred yards. General Hunt never could locate the place, and shot at short range above five hundred shells doing no damage, but honeycombing the surrounding ground.
Wright's Battery was in five hundred yards of the "Crater," and Colonel Coit informed me he shot about six hundred rounds of shell and shrapnel at short range.
In my opinion it did more damage than all our guns put together. Its concealed location gave it a great advantage overall other guns.
Davidson's Battery had only one gun, which only could shoot in one line. But it created more anxiety amongst the enemy than any other. The infantry officers constantly alluded to its destructive power, and they dug a trench to guard against its fire. Major Hampton Gibbes commanded it until he was wounded, and then Captain D.N. Walker for the rest of the day did his duty nobly, and no doubt killed many Federals. General Warren was ordered to capture this gun about 8.30, but at 8.45 he was ordered to do nothing "but reconnoitre." This was before Mahone came up.
The most interesting of our guns were the two coehorns of Major John C. Haskell, because all of his shells were emptied into the "Crater," which was packed with men. General Mahone says: "In the meantime Colonel Haskell, a brilliant officer of our artillery, hunting a place where he could strike a blow at our adversary, presented himself for any service which I could advise. There were two coehorn mortars in the depression already referred to, and I suggested to him that he could serve them. I would have them taken up to the outside of the 'Crater,' at which place he could employ himself until one o'clock, as perhaps no such opportunity had ever occurred or would be likely to occur for effective employment of these little implements of war. Colonel Haskell adopted the suggestion, and the mortars being removed to a ditch within a few feet of the 'Crater,' they were quickly at work emptying their contents upon the crowded mass of men in this horrible pit."
Lieutenant Bowley, a Federal officer, says: "A mortar battery also opened on us. After a few shots they got our range so well that the shells fell directly among us. Many of them did not explode at all, but a few burst directly over us and cut the men down cruelly." He also speaks of a few Indians from Michigan. "Some of them were mortally wounded, and, drawing their blouses over their faces, they chanted a death song and died—four of them in a group."
About 3 o'clock p.m. absolute quietness prevailed over the battlefield where the carnage of war rioted a few hours before. My Orderly, M.C. Heath, a boy of sixteen, who now is a distinguished physician of Lexington, Ky., came to me at Elliott's headquarters and told me that the Lieutenant Colonel and Adjutant sent their compliments and requested me to come to dinner at my den in the trench. I went, and had to step over the dead bodies—all negroes. A narrow ditch led to a plaza six feet square, where a half dozen men, in fine weather, could sit on campstools. On the breastworks hung a dead negro. In the ditch I had to step over another dead negro. As I got to my plaza I saw two more negroes badly wounded in a cell two feet deeper than the plaza where I slept. One of the negroes was resting his bloody head on a fine copy of Paley's philosophy, which I came across in my wanderings. Heath's big basket was well stored with good viands, and we ate with the ferocity of starving men, regaling ourselves with the incidents of battle, without any expressions of sorrow for our friends, Colonel David Fleming and Adjutant Quattlebaum, who a few yards above were entombed in our old sleeping place in the "Crater" which we occupied as our quarters until they succeeded us ten days before, or any lamentations for the hundreds of dead and dying on the hillside around.
The joy of the glorious victory drowned out all sentiments of grief for a season, and it seemed a weird holiday.
Mr. Barnard, in his interesting article on the "Crater," criticises a remarkable paragraph in Colonel Roman's work, "basing his statements made by General Bushrod Johnson and Colonel McMaster." The only objection to my statement was I said Mahone's charge was at 10 o'clock a.m.
The paragraph is as follows:
"Such was the situation. The Federals unable to advance and fearing to retreat, when, at 10 o'clock, General Mahone arrived with a part of his men, who had laid down in the shallow ravine to the rear of Elliott's salient held by the forces under Colonel Smith, there to await the remainder of the Division, but a movement having occurred among the Federals, which seemed to menace an advance, General Mahone then forwarded his Brigade with the Sixty-first North Carolina, of Hoke's Division, which had now also come up. The Twenty-fifth and Forty-ninth North Carolina, and the Seventeenth South Carolina, all under Smith, which were formed on Mahone's left, likewise formed in the 'Crater' movement, and three-fourths of the gorge line was carried with that part of the trench on the left of the 'Crater' occupied by the Federals. Many of the latter, white and black, abandoned the breach and fled under a scourging flank fire of Wise's Brigade."
This is confusion worse confounded. It is difficult to find a paragraph containing so many blunders as the report of General Johnson to Colonel Roman.
The Sixty-first North Carolina of Hoke's Brigade was not present during the day, except at Sander's charge two hours afterwards. The Twenty-fifth and Forty-ninth North Carolina were not present at all, but remained in their trench on the front line.
Smith's men on the extreme right did not as a body go into Mahone's charge. Captain Crawford with one hundred and eighteen men did charge with Mahone. In fact he commanded his own men separate from Smith, although he was close by.
Colonel Roman's account taken from General Johnson's statement is unintelligible.
I dislike to differ with Mr. Bernard, who has been so courteous to me, and with my friend, Colonel Venable, for we literally carried muskets side by side as privates in dear old Captain Casson's company, the Governor's Guards, in Colonel Kershaw's Regiment, at the first battle of Manassas, and I shot thirteen times at Ellsworth's Zouaves. Venable was knocked down with a spent ball and I only had a bloody mouth. And [408] the rainy night which followed the battle we sheltered ourselves under the same oilcloth. But I can't help thinking of these gentlemen as being like all Virginians, which is illustrated by a remark of a great Massachusetts man, old John Adams, in answering some opponent, said: "Virginians are all fine fellows. The only objection I have to you is, in Virginia every goose is a swan."
Colonel Venable says: "I am confident the charge of the Virginians was made before 9 o'clock a.m." Mr. Bernard says, in speaking of the time: "Mahone's Brigade left the plank road and took to the covered way." "It is now half-past 8 o'clock." In a note he says: "probably between 8.15 and 8.30." "At the angle where the enemy could see a moving column with ease the men were ordered to run quickly by, one man at a time, which was done for the double purpose of concealing the approach of a body of troops and of lessening the danger of passing rifle balls at these points."
It took Mahone's Brigade, above eight hundred men, to walk at least five hundred yards down this covered way and gulch, one by one, occasionally interrupted by wounded men going to the rear, at least twenty minutes. At a very low estimate it took them half an hour to form in the ravine, to listen to two short speeches, and the parley between Weisinger and Girardey. With the most liberal allowance this will bring the charge at 9.15 A.M., but it took more time than that.
Captain Whitner investigated the time of the charge in less than a month after the battle. I extract the following, page 795, 40th "War of Rebellion:" "There is a great diversity of opinion as to the time the first charge was made by General Mahone * * * But one officer of the division spoke with certainty, Colonel McMaster, Seventeenth South Carolina Volunteers. His written statement is enclosed." Unluckily the paper was "not found." But there is no doubt I repeatedly said it was about ten o'clock A.M.
General Mahone took no note of the time, but says: "According to the records the charge must have been before nine o'clock. General Burnside in his report fixes the time of the charge and recapture of our works at 8.45 A.M." 40th "War of Rebellion," page 528. He is badly mistaken. General Burnside says: "The enemy regained a portion of his line on the right. This was about 8.45 A.M., but not all the colored [409] troops retired. Some held pits from behind which they had advanced severely checking the enemy until they were nearly all killed."
| James Evans, Major and Surgeon, 3d S.C. Regiment. | Capt. L.P. Foster, Co. K, 3d S.C. Regiment. | ||
| James Evans, Major and Surgeon, 3d S.C. Regiment. | Capt. L.P. Foster, Co. K, 3d S.C. Regiment. |
"At 9.15 I received, with regret, a peremptory order from the General commanding to withdraw my troops from the enemy's lines."
Now this battle indicated as at 8:45 was a continuation, of the one that many officers said was about half-past eight o'clock. And both Mahone and Mr. Bernard were mistaken in stating that the great firing and retreat of soldiers was the result of the Virginian's charge, whereas at this time Mahone's Brigade was at the Jerusalem plank road. Moreover, when Mahone did come up his eight hundred men could not create one-fourth of the reverberation of the Seventeenth Regiment, Ransom's Brigade, and the thousands of the enemy. Besides Mahone's men's fighting was confined to the ditches, and they used mostly the butts and bayonets instead of the barrels of their muskets. No it was the fire of Elliott's men, Ransom's men, the torrent of shells of Wright's Battery and the enemy, Ord's men, and the four thousand negroes, all of them in an area of one hundred yards. The part of the line spoken of by Generals Delavan Bates and Turner and others as the Confederate line were mere rifle pits which the Confederates held until they had perfected the main line, and then gave up the pits. They were in the hollow, where the branch passes through to the breastworks.
Now the tumultuous outburst of musketry, Federal and Confederate, and the landslide of the Federals, was beyond doubt before I went out to Elliott's headquarters on the order of General Johnson.
For two hours before this Meade had been urging Burnside to rush to the crest of the hill until General B. was irritated beyond measure, and replied to a dispatch: "Were it not insubordination I would say that the latter remark was unofficer like and ungentlemanly." Before this time Grant, Meade and Ord had given up hope. They had agreed to withdraw, hence the positive order to withdraw my troops from the enemy's line at 9.15.
Now this must have been before Mahone came up, for there is no allusion to a charge by any Federal General at the court of inquiry. With the 8.30 charge made at the hollow, there was a synchronous [410] movement made by General Warren on the south of the "Crater," but at 8.45 he was informed that it was intended alone for a reconnoissance of the two-gun battery.
At 9.15 General Warren sends dispatch: "Just before receiving your dispatch to assault the battery on the left of the 'Crater' occupied by General Burnside the enemy drove his troops out of the place and I think now hold it. I can find no one who for certainty knows, or seems willing to admit, but I think I saw a Rebel flag in it just now, and shots coming from it this way. I am, therefore, if this (be) true no more able to take this battery now than I was this time yesterday. All our advantages are lost."
The advantages certainly were not lost on account of Mahone's men, but on account of the losses two hundred yards down the hill, of which he had doubtless been advised. He saw what he thought was a "Rebel flag," but for a half an hour he had heard of the terrific castigation inflicted on the Federals down the hill.
But here is something from the court of inquiry that approximates the time of Mahone's charge.
General Griffen, of Potter's Ninth Corps, in reply to the question by the court: "When the troops retired from the 'Crater' was it compulsory from the enemy's operations, or by orders from your commanders?" Answer. "Partly both. We retired because we had orders. At the same time a column of troops came up to attack the 'Crater,' and we retired instead of stopping to fight. This force of the enemy came out of a ravine, and we did not see them till they appeared on the rising ground."
"What was the force that came out to attack you? The force that was exposed in the open?" Answer, "five or six hundred soldiers were all that we could see. I did not see either the right or left of the line. I saw the center of the line as it appeared to me. It was a good line of battle. Probably if we had not been under orders to evacuate we should have fought them, and tried to hold our position, but according to the orders we withdrew."
General Hartranft, of Ninth Corps, says in answer to the question "Driven out?" "They were driven out the same time, the same time I had passed the word to retire. It was a simultaneous thing. When they saw the assaulting column within probably one hundred feet of the works I [411] passed the word as well as it could be passed for everybody to retire. And I left myself at that time. General Griffen and myself were together at that time. The order to retire we had endorsed to the effect that we thought we could not withdraw the troops that were there on account of the enfilading fire over the ground between our rifle pits and the 'Crater' without losing a great portion of them, that ground being enfiladed with artillery and infantry fire. They had at that time brought their infantry down along their pits on both sides of the 'Crater,' so that their sharpshooters had good range, and were in good position. Accordingly we requested that our lines should open with artillery and infantry, bearing on the right and left of the 'Crater,' under which fire we would be able to withdraw a greater portion of our troops, and, in fact, everyone that could get away. While we were in waiting for the approach of that endorsement and the opening of the fire, this assaulting column of the enemy came up and we concluded—General Griffin and myself—that there was no use in holding it any longer, and so we retired."
This proves beyond doubt that Mahone's charge was after 9.15. It probably took Burnside some minutes to receive this order and some minutes for him and Griffin to send it down the line, and to send orders to the artillery to open on their flanks to protect them. This would bring Mahone's charge to 9.30 or 9.45.
I ordered Smith to take his regiment, the Twenty-sixth, and Crawford with Companies K, E, and B, to lie down in the ravine. Every General was ordered to charge to the crest. Had the enemy gotten beyond Smith's line fifty yards they could have marched in the covered way to Petersburg; not a cannon or a gun intervened. General Potter says his men charged two hundred yards beyond the "Crater," when they were driven back. Colonel Thomas said he led a charge which was not successful; he went three or four hundred yards and was driven back. General Griffin says he went about two hundred yards and was driven back. Colonel Russell says he went about fifty yards towards Cemetery Hill and "was driven back by two to four hundred infantry, which rose [412] up from a little ravine and charged us." Some officer said he went five hundred yards beyond the "Crater." There was the greatest confusion about distances. General Russell is about right when he said he went about fifty yards behind the "Crater." When they talk of two or three hundred yards they must mean outside the breastworks towards Ransom's Brigade.
From the character of our breastworks, or rather our cross ditches, it was impracticable to charge down the rear of our breastworks. The only chance of reaching Petersburg was through the "Crater" to the rear. Smith and Crawford, whose combined commands did not exceed two hundred and fifty men, forced them back. Had either Potter, Russell, Thomas, or Griffin charged down one hundred yards farther than they did, the great victory would have been won, and Beauregard and Lee would have been deprived of the great honor of being victors of the great battle of the "Crater."
After the explosion, with less than one thousand two hundred men, and with the co-operation of Wright's Battery and Davenport's Battery, and a few men of Wise's Brigade, resisted nine thousand of the enemy from five to eight o'clock. Then four thousand five hundred blacks rushed over, and the Forty-ninth and Twenty-fifth North Carolina, Elliott's Brigade, welcomed them to hospitable graves at 9 o'clock A.M.
At about 9.30 A.M. old Virginia—that never tires in good works—with eight hundred heroes rushed into the trench of the Seventeenth and slaughtered hundreds of whites and blacks, with decided preference for the Ethiopians.
Captain Geo. B. Lake, of Company B, Twenty-second South Carolina, who was himself buried beneath the debris, and afterwards captured, gives a graphic description of his experience and the scenes around the famous "Crater." He says in a newspaper article:
The evening before the mine was sprung, or possibly two evenings before, Colonel David Fleming, in command of the Twenty-second South Carolina Regiment—I don't know whether by command of General [413] Stephen Elliott or not—ordered me to move my company, Company B, Twenty-second South Carolina, into the rear line, immediately in rear of Pegram's four guns. I had in my company one officer, Lieutenant W.J. Lake, of Newberry, S.C., and thirty-four enlisted men. This rear line was so constructed that I could fire over Pegram's men on the attacking enemy.
The enemy in our front had two lines of works. He had more men in his line nearest our works than we had in his front. From this nearest line he tunnelled to and under Pegram's salient, and deposited in a magazine prepared for it not less than four tons of powder, some of their officers say it was six tons. We knew the enemy were mining, and we sunk a shaft on each side of the four-gun battery, ten feet or more deep, and then extended the tunnel some distance to our front. We were on a high hill, however, and the enemy five hundred and ten feet in our front, where they began their work, consequently their mine was far under the shaft we sunk. At night when everything was still, we could hear the enemy's miners at work. While war means kill, the idea of being blown into eternity without any warning was anything but pleasant.