RELICS IN THE CRATER MUSEUM.
,	1. Musket-barrel ־with bullet-hole at the muz-
zle. 2. Musket burst by two bullets meeting in the barrel, a bullet having entered the muzzle as the gun I .	was discharged. 3. Musket struck by six bullets, one em-
7 bedding itself in the barrel near the bayonet. 4. Musket bent - ׳' after having been cocked and capped. 5. Musket-stock covered with blood, found in a bomb-proof. 6. Sword found in a bomb-proof. 7. Broken sword. 8. Lining of a cartridge-box. 9. Canteen perforated by bullets. 10. Shovel having bullet-lioles, found on the Union picket line in front of the crater. 11. Frying-pan having bullet-holes; taken out of the crater.
changes in the melody. The rest listened to him intently; no sign of approval or disapproval escaped their lips or appeared on their faces. All at once, ־when his refrain had struck the right response in their hearts, his group took it up, and shortly half a thousand voices were upraised extemporizing a half dissonant middle part and bass. It was a picturesque scene—these dark men, with their white eyes and teeth and full red lips, crouching over a smoldering camp-fire, in dusky shadow, with only the feeble rays of the lanterns of the first sergeants and the lights of the candles dimly showing through the tents. The sound was as weird as the scene, when all the voices struck the low E (last note but one), held it, and then rose to A with a portamento as sonorous as it was clumsy. Until we fought the battle of the crater they sang this every night to the exclusion of all other songs. After that defeat they sang it no more. . . .
Finally, about 7:30 A. M., we got the order for the colored division to charge. My brigade followed Sigfried’s at the double-quick. Arrived at the crater, a part of the First Brigade entered. The crater was already too full; that I could easily see. I swung my column to the right and charged over the enemy’s rifle-pits connecting with the crater on our right. These pits were different from any in our lines—a labyrinth of bomb-proofs and
hat on a ramrod and lifting it above the rampart just enough for them not to discover that no man was under it, I drew their fire; then stepping quickly a few paces to one side, I took a hasty observation. . . .
About 11 P. M., July 29th, a few hours before the action, we were officially informed that the plan had been changed, and our division would not lead.
"We were then bivouacking on our arms in rear of our line, just behind the covered way leading to the mine. I returned to that bivouac dejected and with an instinct of disasterfor the morrow.
As I summoned and told my regimental commanders, their faces expressed the same feeling.
Any striking event or piece of news was usually eagerly discussed by the white troops, and in the ranks military critics were as plenty and perhaps more voluble than among the officers.
Not so with the blacks; important news such as that before us, after the bare announcement, was usually followed by long silence. They sat about in groups,
“studying,” as they called it.
They waited, like the Quakers, for the spirit to move; when the spirit moved, one of their singers would uplift a mighty voice, like a bard of old, in a wild sort of chant. If he did not strike a sympathetic chord in his hearers, if they did not find in his utterance the exponent of their idea, he would sing it again and again, altering sometimes the words, more often the music. If his changes met general acceptance, one voice after another would chime in; a rough harmony of three parts would add itself; other groups would join his, and the song would become the song of the command.
The night we learned that we were to lead the charge the news filled them too full for ordinary utterance. The joyous negro guffaw always breaking out about the camp-fire ceased. They formed circles in their company streets and were sitting on the ground intently and solemnly “studying.” At last a heavy voice began to sing,
“ We-e looks li-ike me-en a-a-marchm’ on,
We looks li-ike men-er-war.”
Over and over again he sang it, making slight
The enemy’s guns suddenly ceased their long-continued and uninterrupted fire on the crater, and the advancing column charged in the face of feeble resistance offered by the Union troops. At this stage they were perceived by our artillery, which opened a murderous fire, but too late. Over the crest and into the crater they poured, and a hand-to-hand conflict ensued. It was of short duration, however; crowded as our troops were, and withoutorganization, resistance was vain. Many men were bayoneted at that time — some probably that would not have been, except for the excitement of battle. About 87 officers and 1652 men of the Ninth Corps were captured, the remainder retiring to our own lines, to which the enemy did not attempt to advance. Among the captured was General William F. Bartlett. Earlier in the war he had lost a leg, which he replaced with one of cork. While he was standing in the crater, a shot was heard to strike with the peculiar thud known to those who have been in action, and the general was seen to totter and fall. A number of officers and men immediately lifted him, when he cried out, “Put me any place where Icansitdown.” “Butyouarewounded, General, are n’t you?” was the inquiry. “My leg is shattered all to pieces,” said he. “ Then you can’t sit up, ” they urged; “you ’ll have to lie down. ” “Oh, no ! ” exclaimed the general, “it’s only my cork leg that’s shattered /•״...
S. V.
COLORED
CHARGE OF THE DIVISION.
THE
BY HENRY GODDARD THOMAS, BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL, U. S. V.
Commanding Second Brigade oí Colored Troops at tho Battle of the Crater.
. . . For some time previous to the explosion of the mine it was determined by General Burnside that the colored division should lead the assault. The general tactical plan had been given to the brigade commanders (Colonel Sigfried and myself), with a rough outline map of the ground, and directions to study the front for ourselves. But this latter was impracticable except in momentary glimpses. The enemy made a target of every head that appeared above the work, and their marksmanship was good. The manner of studying the ground was this: Putting my battered old
GUIDON OF THOMAS'S BRIGADE OF THE COLORED DIVISION—SHADED PARTS, GREEN; THE FIELD, WHITE.
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SONG OF THE COLORED DIVISION BEFORE CHARGING INTO THE CRATER.
BREVET MAJOR-GENERAL HENRY G. THOMAS, U.
proposition was received with disfavor. Matters remained¿» statu quo until about 2 p. M., when the enemy’s anticipated assault was made.
About 9 : 30 a. M. Geueral Meade had given positive orders to have the troops withdrawn from the crater. To have done so under the severe fire of the enemy would have produced a stampede, which would have endangered the Union lines, and might possibly have communicated itself to the troops that were massed in rear of the Ninth Corps. General Burnside thought, for these and other reasons, that it would be possible to leave his command there until nightfall, and then withdraw it. There was no means of getting food or water to them, for which they were suffering. The midsummer sun caused waves of moisture produced by the exhalation from this mass to rise above the crater. Wounded men died there begging piteously for water, and soldiers extended their tongues to dampen their parched lips until their tongues seemed to hang from their mouths. Finally, the enemy, having taken advantage of our inactivity to mass his troops, was seen to emerge from the swale between the hill on which the crater was situated and that of the cemetery. On account of this depression they could not be seen by our artillery, and hence no guns were brought to bear upon them. The only place where they could be observed was from the crater. But there was no serviceable artillery there, and no infantry force sufficiently organized to offer resistance when the enemy’s column pressed forward. All in the crater who could possibly hang on by their elbows and toes lay flat against its conical wall and delivered their fire ; but not more than a hundred men at a time could get into position, and these were only armed with muzzle-loading guns, and in order to re-load they were compelled to face about and place their backs against the wall.
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