THE BATTLE OF THE PETERSBURG CRATER.

553

of the crater, or squatting in a half-sitting, half-standing posture, and some°f the men were shot even there by the fire from the enemy in the traverses.It was at this juncture that Colonel Marshall requested me to go to GeneralLedlie and explain the condition of affairs, which he knew that I had seenari d understood perfectly well. This I did immediately.

While the above was taking place the enemy had not been idle. He hadbrought a battery from his left to bear upon the position, and as I started ontty errand the crest of the crater was being swept with canister. Specialattention was given to this battery by our artillery, but for some reason orother the enemy’s guns could not be silenced. Passing to the Union linesttider this storm of canister, I found General Ledlie and a part of his staffensconced in a protected angle of the works. I gave him Colonel Marshall’sttessage, explained to him the situation, and Colonel Marshall’s reasons for11 °t being able to move forward. General Ledlie then directed me to returnat once and say to Colonel Marshall and General Bartlett that it was GeneralBurnside’s order that they should move forward immediately. This message^as delivered. But the firing on the crater now was incessant, and it was asheavy a fire of canister as was ever poured continuously upon a single objec-tive point. It was as utterly impracticable to re-form a brigade in that crater asit would be to marshal bees into line after upsetting the hive; and equally as^practicable to re-form outside of the crater, under the severe fire in fronta nd rear, as it would be to hold a dress parade in front of a charging enemy.Here, then, was the second point of advantage lost by the fact that there was110 person present with authority to change the programme to meet the cir-e ttristances. Had a prompt attack of the troops to the right and left of thett’ater been made as soon as the leading brigade had passed into the crater, ore ven fifteen minutes afterward, clearing the trenches and diverting the fire ofIbe enemy, success would have been inevitable, and particularly would thisbave been the case on the left of the crater, as the small fort immediately infront of the Fifth Corps was almost, if not entirely, abandoned for a whileafter the explosion of the mine, the men running away from it as if theyfeared that it was to be blown up also.

Whether General Ledlie informed General Burnside of the condition ofaffairs as reported by me I do not know; but I think it likely, as it was not0,1 R after I had returned to the crater that a brigade of the Second Division(^otter’s) under the command of Brigadier-General S. G. Griffin advanced itss kirnaishers and followed them immediately, directing its course to the right°f the crater. General Griffin’s line, however, overlapped the crater on theeit, where two or three of his regiments sought shelter in the crater. Thosethe right passed over the trenches, but owing to the peculiar character ofenemy’s works, which were not single, but complex and involuted and

the

filled

of

with pits, traverses, and bomb-proofs, forming a labyrinth as difficultPassage as the crater itself, the brigade was broken up, and, meeting the

‘- e vere fire of canister, also fell back into the crater, which was then full tottffocatiou. Every organization melted away, as soon as it entered this hole111 the ground, into a mass of human beings clinging by toes and heels to the

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