Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1864-08-01

Grant carries Two Lines of the Enemy's
Entrenc hments and Advances to the
have time to Il ally-Our Troops Forced to
Retire to their Original Line-Grant
Gains Important Advantages.
We have the following interesting particu.
lars Of the fighting on Saturday in front Of
Petersburg, obtained from eye witnesses OF the
stirring events of the day.
At o'clock on Saturday morning the arrival
Of the signal boat at City Point. coming down
the Appomattox swiftly and venting its well
known and peculiar shrill whistle, indicated
to the initiated that something was up. Genl
Grant rose immediately, and mounting his
horse galloped of towards Petersburg to
Meade's headquarters, some eight miles dis.
tant from City Point, other parties anxious to
witness the antici pated event, immediately fol-
lowed as rapidly as possible.
About three O'Clock the stiffness Of the night
was broken by an artillery fire, OF no great
fervor, however, and which, on the surface,
bore no significance as being anything more
than the routine compliments of the morning
TO the enemy.
About four o'clock. however, the cannonads
on our part assumed a vigor that must have
warned the Petersburghers and the enemy
the re congregated that something serious was
about to transpire. And about twenty minutes
later, something serious did transpire in the
explosion of Grants mine, located under the
main fort, in front or rather little to the left
of the front of Burns ide's position.
Our informants state that the published &C.
counts to the effect that the earth was blown
up i've hundred feet by the explosion, and that
tae report aawakened Richmond" shaking
the earth as by an earthquake for miles away,
is all nonsense. The NINE was laid very deep,
"A o hao ,lN ,bHr
tive, was distinguished by none Of those pyro-
tschnic effects given it by the hand of fancy.
The earth was thrown up in a brown cloud
aoout one hundred feet, and at the same time
q low, rumbling sound was heard, bearing no
proper ton in weight to the roar Of the cannon
The sound of the explosion was not even heard
at City Point, and the fact of the explosion Of
the mine was not known there un til the arrival
o: the train from the 'front.'
pause Of twenty minutes followed upon
the spring ing of The mine before the charge
was made by the 9th corps, who then sprang
forward to the first line of entrenchments
which was carried, and they then pushed
on to the second line, exposed TO a murderous
enfilading fire from the enemy's batteries. Here
1t was that the negro troops, who had earned
good name in previous service, and who had
asked the privilege of leading the advance,
covered be ore the terrible fire and fell back
in disorder.
Other divisions of the 9th and 10th, how.
ever pushed on, gaining the second line of
lnIenchments and up to the third and last
line, and apparently the day was our own, but
here somebody Numbered, and, if we may
believe report, our troops paused for two and
a half hours at this point, waiting the order to
assault this third line, giving an opportunity
Tor the enemy to rally their forces and crowd
our thinned columns back to their starting
point so that the important advantages gained
were snatched from us at the moment when,
apparently, Petersburg was won. Our loss
was pretty heavy in the fighting between the
intrenchments, amounting to 1000 or /, 500 men,
1t was reported at City Point when the mail
boat left yesterday, that we took 800 pris-
oners in the rebel intrenchments, and that some
700 of the enemy were killed by the explosion.
The Rebels appear to have been informed as
TO the direction in which Grants mining oper-
atoms were running, as shown by the fact tina
they had removed I2 OF the 16 guns belonging
to the fort exploded.
The story that Petersburg was burned on
Saturday is not true, we hear. Casual shells
may have struck buildings and fred them, but
the town was not deliberately shelled as re.
ported.
Though Grant has not succeeded in accom-.
upon the works Of the enemy, and is apparently
no nearer Petersburg than he was before the
explosion OF his mine, he really has gained
possession of information as to the enemy's
positions that, combined with the destruction
Of the prin cipal tortlfcation defending Peters
burg, places him much nearer the accomplish
uent of his work.
Inere was no W. g after two p. m. on Sat.
urday' and fsere was only desultory firing
a'ter nipe a. m. Our troops were back where
tlsJ started from before eleven a. m.
Since writing the above, we have informa-
ton that the explosion was admirable, reaIiz-
Ing all Grants expectations; but we failed to
reap the advantages expected to follow upon
it, from the fact that the charge to follow upon
1t was somewhat delayed, and also to the fact
that IIedley's and Turner's divisions, OF the
9th and 10th corps, which made it, did not
stand up to their work. The report that the
negro troops behaved especially bad is not cor
federated by our later information, which
states that they behaved no worse, at least,
than others.