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IN THE CRATER.
BY CHARLES H. HOUGHTON, BREVET MAJOR, 14tH NEW YORK HEAVY ARTILLERY.
O N the evening of July 29th, 1864, we of theNinth Corps in front of Petersburg knewthat an important movement was to take place,as we were ordered out for inspection and dressparade, and soon after returning to our place inthe trenches, orders came to prepare three days’cooked rations, and ammunition was distributed.Soon we were relieved by troops from the Eight-eenth Corps and marched back to the open groundseveral rods in rear of our works and halted, lyingdown in the sand till about 3 o’clock in the morn-ing of the 30th. We now marched toward the left,and passing out through covered ways advancedto the front line of works. The men were cau-tioned to prevent the rattling of tin cups and bay-onets, because we were so near the enemy thatthey would discover our movements. We marchedtvith the stillness of death; not a word was saidabove a whisper. We knew, of course, that some-thing yei-y important was to be done and that weh 7 ere to play a prominent part. We formed ourhues of battle in the trenches of General Potter’sdivision. Our brigade, commanded by ColonelG. Marshall of the 14th New York Artillery,Was first in line and formed three lines of battle,the 2d Pennsylvania Provisional Artillery in thefirst line, the 14th New York Artillery in the secondfine, and the 179th New York and 3d Maryland inthe third line. Our regiment, originally composed°f three battalions, had been consolidated intotwo of six companies each, the 1st Battalion com-hianded by Captain L. J. Jones, and the 2d Bat-
talion by myself. Each battalion was acting as anindependent regiment.
While waiting quietly and anxiously for the ex-plosion, men had been allowed to lie down in line.I was lying on the ground resting my head on myhand and thinking of the probable result, whenthe denouement came. I shall never forget theterrible and magnificent sight. The earth aroundus trembled and heaved — so violently that I waslifted to my feet. Then the earth along the ene-my’s lines opened, and fire and smoke shot upwardseventy-five or one hundred feet. The air wasfilled with earth, cannon, caissons, sand-bags andliving men, and with everything else within theexploded fort. One huge lump of clay as largeas a hay-stack or small cottage was thrown outand left on top of the ground toward our ownworks. Our orders were to charge immediatelyafter the explosion, but the effect produced by thefalling of earth and the fragments sent heaven-ward that appeared to be coming right down uponus, caused the first line to waver and fall back, andthe situation was one to demoralize most troops. Igave the command “ Forward,” but at the outset aserious difficulty had to be surmounted. Our ownworks, which were very high at this point, had notbeen prepared for scaling. But scale them in someway we must, and ladders were improvised by themen placing their bayonets between the logs inthe works and holding the other end at their hipor on shoulders, thus forming steps over which menclimbed. I with others stood on top of the works
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