558

THE BATTLE OF THE PETERSBURG CRATER.

the enemy would have produced a stampede, which would have endangeredthe Union lines, and might possibly have communicated itself to the troopsthat were massed in rear of the Ninth Corps. General Burnside thought, forthese and other reasons, that it would be possible to leave his command thereuntil nightfall, and then withdraw it. There was no means of getting food

or water to them, for which theywere suffering. The midsummersun caused waves of moisture pro-duced by the exhalation from thismass to rise above the crater.Wounded men died there beggingpiteously for water, and soldiersextended their tongues to dampentheir parched lips until their tonguesseemed to hang from their mouths.Finally, the enemy, having takenadvantage of our inactivity to masshis troops, was seen to emerge fromthe swale [see cut, p. 554] betweenthe hill on which the crater wassituated and that of the cemetery-On account of this depression theycould not be seen by our artillery,and hence no guns were brought tobear upon them. The only placewhere they could be observed wasfrom the crater. But there was no serviceable artillery there, and no infantryforce sufficiently organized to offer resistance when the enemy’s columnpressed forward. All in the crater who could possibly hang on by theirelbows and toes lay flat against its conical wall and delivered their fire; butnot more than a hundred men at a time could get into position, and thesewere only armed with muzzle-loading guns, and in order to re-load they werecompelled to face about and place their backs against the wall.

The enemy’s guns suddenly ceased their long-continued and uninterruptedfire on the crater, and the advancing column charged in the face of feebleresistance offered by the Union troops. At this stage they were perceivedby our artillery, which opened a murderous fire, but too late. Over the crestand into the crater they poured, and a hand-to-hand conflict ensued. It wasof short duration, however; crowded as our troops were, and without organ-ization, resistance was vain. Many men were bayoneted at that time—someprobably that would not have been, except for the excitement of battle-About 87officers ☆ and 1652 men of the Ninth Corps were captured, the remain-der retiring to our own lines, to which the enemy did not attempt to advance.

■fe Among the captured was General William F. was standing in the crater, a shot was heard toBartlett. Earlier in the war he had lost a leg, strike with the peculiar thud known to those whowhich he replaced with one of cork. While lie have been in action, and the general was seen to

MAJOR-GENERAL ROBERT B. POTTER.FROM A PHOTOGRAPH.