THE CONFEDERATE LINE AS RECONSTRUCTED AT THE CRATER. From a drawing made by Lieutenant Henderson after the battle.
THE CRATER, AS SEEN PROM THE UNION SIDE. From a sketch made at the time.
jaws of death, and advanced until met by a charge in force from the Confederate lines.
I lost in all 36 officers and 877 men,—total, 913. The 23d Regiment entered the charge with eighteen officers; it came out with seven. The 28th entered with eleven officers, and came out with four. The 31st had but two officers for duty that night. . . .
Note.—The battle of the “ Crater” ended for the time being the attempts of Grant to take Petersburg by direct assault. Hancock’s corps, Gregg’s cavalry division, and a force from Butler’s army advanced up the north bank of the James in August to threaten Richmond, and at the same time Warren’s corps marched out of the works at Petersburg and seized the Weldon railroad, at Globe Tavern, south of the city. The Confederates made repeated and desperate attacks to dislodge Warren, but were repulsed. Later Hancock and Gregg recrossed the James and proceeded to destroy the Weldon road beyond Warren's position. A desperate battle ensued at Reams’s Station on August 20th.
In September operations were continued north of the James. On the 29th the Tenth Corps, under General D. B. Birney, and the Eighteenth, under General E. O. C. Ord, carried Fort Harrison, opposite Drewry’s Bluffs, by storm, but were repulsed in a desperate assault on Fort Gilmer, a strong work nearer to Richmond.
In October an expedition under Hancock attempted to seize the South Side railroad, a line west of the Weldon road, but it proved to be within the enemy’s intrench-ments and the expedition retired after a sharp battle at Hatcher’s Run. Further movements on the left were the expedition, December 7th to loth, under Warren, by which the Weldon railroad was destroyed as far as Hicksford, and the combined movement, February 5th to 7th, under Warren and Humphreys (who on the 28th of November succeeded to the command of Hancock’s Corps!, which resulted in extending the Union intrench-ments to Hatcher’s Run, after some severe fighting with the troops of A. P. Hill and Gordon. The renewal of these operations in the spring of 1865 led to the campaign of Five Forks. Sheridan’s cavalry joined the besieging army March 24th, and on the 29th started on the march around Lee’s right flank.
Meanwhile, on the 25th, Gordon’s corps breached Grant’s lines at Fort Stedman, and fighting over the in-trenchments continued until the grand assaults which terminated the siege on April 2d. (See p. 308.)
We were not long back within the honeycomb of ־passages and bomb-proofs near the crater before I received this order from the division commander : “Colonels Sigfried and Thomas, if you have not already done so, you will immediately proceed to take the crest in your front.” My command was crowded into the pits, already too full, and were sandwiched, man for man, against the men of the First Division. They were thus partly sheltered from the fire that had reduced them coming up; but their organization was almost lost. I had already sent word to General Burnside by Major James L. Van Buren, of his staff, that unless a movement simultaneous with mine was made to the right, to stop the enfilading fire, I thought not a man would live to reach the crest; but that I would try another charge in about ten minutes, and I hoped to be supported. I then directed the commanders of the 23d, 28th, and 29th regiments to get their commands as much together and separated from the others as possible in that time, so that each could have a regimental following, for we were mixed up with white troops, and with one another to the extent of almost paralyzing any effort. We managed to make the charge, however, Colonel Bross of the 29th leading. The 31st had been so shattered, was so diminished, so largely without officers, that I got what was left of them out of the way of the charging column as much as possible. This column met the same fate in one respect as the former. As I gave the order, Lieutenant-Colonel John A. Bross, taking the flag into his own hands, was the first man to leap from the works into the valley of death below. He had attired himself in full uniform, evidently with the intent of inspiring his men. He had hardly reached the ground outside the works before he fell to rise no more. He was conspicuous and magnificent in his gallantry. The black men followed into the
was during the engagement, was just across the ravine to our left of the crater and just in rear of our infantry line, about 300 yards distant from the crater. It was erected there to defend Elliott’s Salient. It bore directly upon the crater, and was the only battery which could reach the Federal troops in advancing to our lines and after they occupied the crater. It commanded the ground from the Federal main line to the Jerusalem plank-road in rear of the crater. General Potter was unahle to silence it, or even to do us any serious injury, because he could not fire directly upon its front. From this position, which was very elevated, I had a view of the whole field from the Federal main line to the ridge or plank-road. I saw all the movements of the Federal troops from the beginning to the end of the fight. I remember particularly being struck with the gallantry of one of the Federal officers, with a flag in one hand and waving his sword in the other, mounting our works.”
Ross was shot down; the next officer in rank, Captain Wright, was shot as he stooped over him. The men were largely without leaders, and their organization was destroyed. Two of my four orderlies were wounded: one, flag in hand; the remaining two sought shelter when Lieutenant Pennell, rescuing the guidon, hastened down the line outside the pits. With his sword uplifted in his right hand and the banner in his left, he sought to call out the men along the whole line of the parapet. In a moment, a musketry fire was focused upon him, whirling him round and round several times before he fell. Of commanding figure, his bravery was so conspicuous that, according to Colonel Weld’s testimony, a number of his (Weld’s) men were shot because, spell-bound, they forgot their own shelter in watching this superb boy, who was an only child of an old Massachusetts clergyman, and to me as Jonathan was to David.
The men of the 31st making the charge were being mowed down like grass, with no hope of any one reaching the crest, so I ordered them to scatter and run back. The fire was such that Captain Dempcy and myself were the only officers who returned, unharmed, of those who left the works for that charge.
In October, 1887, Major James 0. Coit, of Clieraw, South Carolina, wrote as follows with regard to this picture, and the Confederate battery, under his command, bearing on the crater:
“ I am satisfied that I made that sketch of the crater. I had sent the sketch home after the battle, and had given some of the officers on the lines copies. It was made when I was in front of the Federal lines under the flag of truce for burying the dead. One gun that was blown up by the explosion fell between the lines, as represented in the sketch.
“ My guns [Coit’s battalion] were all upon the front line up to the time of the explosion of the mine. After that time one of my batteries was placed upon a second line, upon the Jerusalem plank-road immediately in rear of the crater. I also had a mortar-battery between the crater and the cemetery, about 150 yards in roar of the battery that was so effective on the day of the explosion. This battery [Wright’s], where I
magazines, witli passages between. My brigade moved gallantly on right over the bomb-proofs and over the men of the First Division. As we mounted the pits, a deadly enfilade from eight guns on our right and a murderous cross-fire of musketry met us. Among the officers, the first to fall was the gallant Fessenden of the 23d Regiment. Ayres and 'Woodruff of the 31st dropped within a few yards of Fessenden, Ayres being killed, and Woodruff mortally wounded. Liscomb of the 23d then fell to rise no more; and then Hackhiser of the 28th and Flint and Aiken of the 29th. Major Rock-wood of the 19th then mounted the crest and fell back dead, with a eheer on his lips. Nor were these all; for at that time hundreds of heroes “ carved in ebony” fell. These black men commanded the admiration and respect of every beholder.
The most advantageous point for the purpose, about eight hundred feet from the crater, having been reached, we leaped from the works and endeavored to make a rush for the crest. Captain Marshall L. Dempcy, and Lieutenant Christopher Pennell, of my staff, and four white orderlies with the brigade guidon accompanied me, closely followed by Lieutenant-Colonel Ross, leading the 31st Regiment. At the instant of leaving the works
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