Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1867-10-31

wheels and barrels of cannon, and hete-
rogeneous, hideous, smoking debris of
burnt flesh, burnt equipments, and men
gasping in the death agony, with fame
licking and smoke sufocating them.
Then came the charge. A white divis-
ion rushed forward, followed by negro
troops, and before any resistance could be
made by the Confederates, they had passed
over the narrow space between the lines,
mounted the activity. reached the Crater
they were within the Confederate lines.
So far, all had gone well, and there see.
med every probability that General Lee
would be forced to fight desperate battle
for the possession of the commanding crest
in rear of the point at which the mine had
been exploded. That crest was not mere
point Of military advantage, but key po-
sition. Holding it, as we have said, the
enemy would be firmly planted in the very
centre of his line of battle; they would
command the works to the right and left
of it. rendering them completely untenable;
at one blow Lee would be driven to take up
an interior line, and that is an operation
of the utmost delicacy when pushed by a
victorious enemy.
The Importance of a rapid and vigorous
advance to the crest referred to has never
been called in question. That it was not
done, profoundly enraged the North, and
especially the Congressional Committee;
but the origin of the complete failure of
the affair appears to us attributable to 9TH
er causes than the employment of white
instead of black troops to charge"
The "white division" charged, reached
the Crater, stumbled over the debris, were
suddenly met by merciless fire of artille-
ry, enflading them right and left-of in
fantry .fusillading them in front faltered,
hesitated, were badly led, lost heart, gave
up the plan of selling the crest, huddled
into the Crater, man on top of man, COM
pany mingling with company; AID then,
upon this disordered, unstrung, quiyering
mass of human beings, white and black
for the black troops had followed was
poured hurricane of shot, shell, canister,
musketry, which made the hideous Crater
slaughter-pen, horrible and frightful be-
yond the power of words.
All order was lost; all idea of charging
the crest abandoned. Lees infantry was
seen concentrating for the carnival of death;
his artillery was massing to destroy the
remnant of of the charging division those
who deserted the Crater to scramble over
the debris to run back, were shot down :;
then, all that seemed left to that struggling,
budding, shuddering mass of blacks and
whites in the pit, was to shrink lower,
evade the naetaaiUe, and wait for coun-
ter-charge of their friends, to rescue them,
or surrender.
Such had been the result of the great
explosion and charge to cut Lees line-a
mass of disorganized troops, torn to pieces
by fire which they scarcely attempted to
return. They were swallowed up in that
pit which their own hands had dug they
were being buthered General Malone,
turning away from the spectacle, mutter-
ed:
"Stop the fire It makes me sick p
Of the force that charged there, a few
only went back-the rest were dead,
wounded, or prisoners.
The Federal loss was four thousand
men.
So ended the affair of the "Crater," as
the Confederates called 1.-THE "Mine,"
as the Federals entitled it.
1t was the singular termination of a sim
gular campaign for in all tie annals of
war, there is no stranger chapter than that
overland campaiggno tq66d, invisible combat
in the depths of tangled thicket on the
Rapidan, it ended for the moment here,
on the shores Of the Appomattox, in hid
eous Crater, where the dead and the dy
ing, like the rest, were torn to pieces,
amid smoke and fame, with every circum-
of horror. The war had thus grown brutal,
terrific, instinct with species of barbarous
fury Men no longer fought pitched bat
ties in open field; they grappled in thick.
cts, or in dark mornings before they would
see each other, or they were hurled into
the air by subterranean explosions. To
kill-no matter how-seemed the great
aim and object of the combatants. The
wild beast was aroused, and in the very
clergyman in the pulpit the spirit of the
animal is dormant. Judge if is wanting
in the rank and file of the army.
1t was this spirit of the tiger that we
have seen at its revels, on the days of the
Horseshoe, Cold Harbor, and the Cra-
! ter.
But nothing decisive was accomplished.
Il is true that Lees rapier was wearing.
The sledge-hammer could not break it,
but ''attrition" could wear away the blade.
Slowly, it grew thinner. The edge cut
still !; how it cut the world knows-a
Hatcher's Run. Fort Steadman, Five Forks
in hundred places-but the time was
approaching when it must give way.
It snapped at Appomattox in that stall
wart hand; but when Lee returned the
stump to the scabbard, there was not a