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Updated: May 13, 2025
The last was a colored division; and Burnside selected it to make the assault. Meade interfered with this. Burnside then took Ledlie's division a worse selection than the first could have been. In fact, Potter and Willcox were the only division commanders Burnside had who were equal to the occasion.
In the early morning of the thirtieth the mine blew up with an earthquaking shock; the enemy round it ran helterskelter to the rear; a crater like that of a volcano was formed; and a hundred and sixty pieces of artillery opened a furious fire on every square inch near it. Ledlie's division rushed forward and occupied the crater.
Ledlie's division marched into the crater immediately on the explosion, but most of the men stopped there in the absence of any one to give directions; their commander having found some safe retreat to get into before they started.
When he came to consciousness he cried out, "What! old Morse running!" and immediately returned to his place in line. The same consternation existed in the Federal line. As they saw the masses descending they broke ranks, and it took a few minutes to restore order. About fifteen minutes after the explosion General Ledlie's Corps advanced in line. The cheval-de-frise was destroyed for fifty yards.
Ledlie's division marched into the crater immediately on the explosion, but most of the men stopped there in the absence of any one to give directions; their commander having found some safe retreat to get into before they started.
But there the whole maneuver stopped short; for everything hinged on Ledlie's movements; and Ledlie was hiding, well out of danger, instead of "carrying on." After a pause Confederate reinforcements came up and drove the leaderless division back. "The effort," said Grant, "was a stupendous failure"; and it cost him nearly four thousand men, mostly captured.
Before this terrible "Crater," soon to be a hollocu of human beings, were massed Ledlie's, Potter's, Wilcox's, and Ferrero's Divisions, supported by Ames'. In the front was Ferrero's Division of negro troops, drunk and reeling from the effects of liquor furnished them by the wagon loads. This body of twenty-three thousand men were all under the immediate command of Major General Ord.
Soon after General Wilcox's Corps came in line and bore to Ledlie's left. Then Potter's Corps followed by flanks and was ordered to the right of Ledlie's troops. The pall of smoke was so great that we could not see the enemy until they were in a few feet of our works, and a lively fusillade was opened by the Seventeenth Regiment on the north side of the "Crater."
After this the siege continued all through the month of August. While Hood was trying to keep Sherman off Atlanta Grant was trying to make a breach at Petersburg. Burnside was ordered to use his corps for the assault, and he chose Ledlie's division to lead.
The last was a colored division; and Burnside selected it to make the assault. Meade interfered with this. Burnside then took Ledlie's division a worse selection than the first could have been. In fact, Potter and Willcox were the only division commanders Burnside had who were equal to the occasion.
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