IV.

THE MINE FIASCO.

As soon as the system of works had been completed, it was determined to make an assault on the enemy's position on Burnside's front, and it was resolved to work into the plan the explosion of a mine which that officer had prepared.

This enterprise had been undertaken some weeks previously by Burnside of his own motion, and was allowed to proceed rather by sufferance than sanction. Having at first excited only ridicule, the mine, now that it was finished, began to receive more serious consideration, and it was resolved to bring it into play in the proposed plan of assault. Burnside occupied a position very close to and within a hundred and fifty yards of the enemy's line,* which happened there to form an angle, that was covered by a fort. It was under this fort that the mine had been run. The location of the mine did not promise well, the fort to be destroyed being in a re-entrant of the enemy's line, and therefore exposed to an enfilading and reverse fire right and left. Still, it was seen that if the crest of the ridge behind the fort, and distant from it by only four hundred yards, could be carried, it would secure the most important results, carrying with it Petersburg, and probably a large part of the enemy's artillery and infantry.‡

About the time fixed for the assault, which was the morning of the 30th of July, there happened a conjuncture of events that promised a happy bearing on the result. Four days before

*This was the position secured by Griffin's division, of Warren's corps, in the attack of the 18th of June.

For proof of the disadvantageous location of the mine, see Meade's Report; Meade's testimony before the Court of Inquiry.—Report of the Conduct of the War, p. 125. Testimony of the chief-engineer.-Ibid.

Meade's testimony.—Ibid., p. 126.

—that is, on the 26th of July-an expeditionary force under General Hancock, consisting of the Second Corps with two divisions of Sheridan's cavalry, had been sent to operate towards Richmond by the north side of the James. Hancock crossed at Deep Bottom on the night of the 26th, with instructions to proceed rapidly to Chapin's Bluff, where Lee had established ponton-bridges, that were his means of communication between the two parts of his army. Hancock was to prevent Confederate re-enforcements from being sent to the north side of the James, while Sheridan with his cavalry was to proceed to the Virginia Central Railroad, to operate towards Richmond, the works of which being thinly held were supposed to be open to a surprise.* As will presently appear, however, there were circumstances that thwarted the execution of this part of the plan.

Foster's lodgment at Deep Bottom had caused Lee to send a body of troops to observe him. This force held position on his immediate front, and had already made one or two unsuccessful sallies to dislodge him. Hancock determined, next morning, to disengage this force by a turning movement by the right, while Foster threatened it in front. The operation was successfully accomplished, and the skirmish line of Miles' brigade, of Barlow's division,t by a well-executed manœuvre, captured four guns. The enemy held this front weakly; and, when thus assailed, retired a short distance to another line of works, behind Bailey's Creek, where he effectually barred Hancock's approach to Chapin's Bluff. This position seemed so formidable that Hancock preferred to flank it. The cavalry, meanwhile, moved to the right, and, by one or two spirited charges, gained possession of some high, open ground, which it was hoped might enable it to get in the rear of the enemy's line. Night came on, however, before any thing was accomplished, and the movement being now

Hancock: Report of the Expedition to Deep Bottom.

The skirmish line was composed of the One Hundred and Eighty-third Pennsylvania, Twenty-eighth Massachusetts, and Twenty-sixth Michigan, under Colonel J. C. Lynch.

fully disclosed, Lee drew to this point a very heavy force from Petersburg. In the morning he assumed the offensive, drove back Sheridan from his advance on the New Market and Long Bridge roads, and, though that officer was able, by dismounting his troopers, to check and finally drive off his assailants, it became obvious that his proposed expedition was baulked.

During the 28th and following day, Hancock held a simply defensive attitude, Lee meanwhile concentrating so heavily against him that he finally had drawn to the north bank of the James five of the eight divisions of the Confederate army. Of this circumstance General Grant determined to take advantage; for, though the direct purpose of the move had failed, it had yet caused Lee so materially to weaken his force in front of Petersburg as to afford an excellent opportunity for the assault, which it was designed to make on Burnside's front. Hancock's move, therefore, assumed the character of a feint; and the expeditionary force was ordered that night to withdraw secretly from its position on the north side of the James, and return to the lines of Petersburg, to participate in the attack of the following morning.

It will have appeared, from the outline already given of the proposed assault, that it was an operation essentially of the nature of a coup de main. It involved the explosion of the mine, through the breach formed by which an assaulting column would then push forward to sweep the hostile line right and left, and crown the crest of the ridge. Thus the whole momentum of the action and the entire promise of the result centred in the corps to which the duty of assault was assigned.

In this state of facts, it would seem to be the dictate of prudence, and certainly has been the invariable practice of the great commanders, to select for the storming column the élite of the army-a rule that does not seem to have been followed in this case. It happened that the Ninth Army Corps, under General Burnside, held the front from which the assault was to be made. With no purpose of undertaking the

ungracious task of comparison, but with the simple desire of stating a matter of fact essential to the correct appreciation of the action and its result, it is due to say that that corps could not be considered the élite corps of the army. The old Ninth, than which there never was better, had been reduced by long and varied service to a mere nucleus, with which had been agglomerated (not fused) a mass of new, heterogeneous, and inferior material. The first division was largely made up of foot-artillerists and dismounted cavalry, and the fourth division was composed exclusively of Blacks. To such an extent had the morale of the Ninth Corps become impaired, that its inspecting officer a short time before the assault declared the three White divisions to be in so bad a condition that the division of Blacks was to be preferred for the duty.

If, in view of this circumstance, it be asked why another selection was not made, an answer does not readily present itself. There is, however, in Carnot's work, De la Défence des Places Fortes, a remarkable passage that closely touches this matter. "The reasons why our assaults occasionally fail," says he, "are, in my opinion, various. In the first place, it is a rule that the troops immediately on duty, or near the spot, generally storm or do whatever service may be required. These troops may be most unfit for it, and by this mode the good old custom is done away of employing grenadiers or chosen men for occasions of difficulty. There are no troops in the world that can be taken indiscriminately for brilliant services, and undoubtedly none more so than for storming works. Besides, the officer to whom the command falls may be very unfit for the particular service."

But, what is even more extraordinary than the selection itself, is the mode in which the selection was made. General Grant refused to permit the black division to be chosen for the assaulting column, and it remained to appoint one of the three divisions of white troops. General Burnside then resolved to determine the choice by casting lots-or, as General Grant has expressed it, by "pulling straws or tossing coppers." The lot fell to the first division, under command of

Brigadier-General Ledlie. With such a mode of determining such a question, need it be wondered that an elfish fate turned up of all the divisions the poorest-a division fitted neither in respect of its composition nor its commander for the glorious but exacting duty assigned it.

The hour for the explosion of the mine was fixed at halfpast four in the morning of the 30th. At that hour the match was applied, but, owing to the defective fuse employed, the mine failed to explode. After waiting some time, a commissioned and a non-commissioned officer* volunteered for the perilous duty of entering the mine and ascertaining the cause of the failure. The fuse being relighted, the mine exploded at forty-two minutes past four in the morning. A solid mass of earth, through which the exploding powder blazed like lightning playing in a bank of clouds, arose slowly some two hundred feet into the air, and, hanging visibly for a few seconds, it subsided, and a heavy cloud of black smoke floated off. The explosion of the mine was the signal for a simultaneous outburst of artillery fire from the various batteries. This had the effect of soon silencing the enemy's guns. The leading division under Ledlie then advanced to the charge. The place d'armes was, however, very restricted: no proper débouchés had been prepared for the assaulting column, and the advance was made slowly and stragglingly.

* Lieutenant Jacob Douty and Sergeant Henry Rees, of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Regiment.

"On the morning of the 30th, as soon as the mine exploded, our fire opened along the whole line. The firing was from each piece slow, deliberate, and careful, partaking of the nature of target practice, and was very effective. The enemy's guns in front of the Fifth Corps were soon silenced, and his fire in front of the Ninth Corps confined to a battery on the hill behind the mine, and to one gun from another work south of the mine, which could not be effectually reached."-Hunt: Report of Artillery Operations.

On this point Lieutenant-General Grant says: "I am satisfied that he [General Burnside] did not make the debouchement that he was ordered to make. I know that as well as I know any thing that I cannot exactly swear to."-Report on the Conduct of the War, second series, vol. i., p. 110. General Meade says: "There was a high parapet in front of our lines, an abatis, and