Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1920-12-15
springing the Mine at The
d Crater.

Sometime ago promised to give
Sasdescription of the springing of the
sFgine at St. Petersburg. The history
,Sf General Grants campaign by the
left. flank from the Rapidan to the
defenses around st. Petersburg is too
familiar to need any description.
The best equipped army ever mar
;,sIaled on American soil crossed the
sRanidan on May 8, 1864, with a to-
issssroll of 141,160 men fit for duty
siiiiaSithe field. To meet this vast force,
General Lee could muster barely
niSEe than $4,000 men. In the
Southern Historical Papers," volume
;6,gage LA, there appears the fol-
1olging statement: "Grant says he
ssiosEain the campaign from the VIII
grEssssress to Cold Harbor, $4,000, but
fswp1ton puts his loss as 10000, and
isRys his real loss was nearer 100000
IHeas3
From Cold Harbor, where his men
,stnbb bornly refused to go like dumb
aatimals q into the jaws of death to the
battle of the Crater, General Grant
'ifi ifi his official reports shows loss of
.2.9,A36 men making a total loss as
admitted. of 6S,436, just about one
half the vast army which commenced
the campaign.
.sSuch tremendous losses to the ene-
mn meant of necessity irreparable
losses to our army, 'hough General
Lee had repelled ev assault and
in carrying rye majori-
ty Of the aggressive ments made
BY him.
"a the light o. ,eriences
it5:WasSnot surpri-. 9 ac Graet
sought some other and different
means Of assault than those ordinari-
~ employed. So he decided that a
mine under our works should be ex-
cayated sand sprung.
The excavation was commenced
on June the %, and completed on
July 2S. The main gallery of the mine
was five hundred and twenty-five
feet in length and the size Of the
galleries were forty each. "Oficial
Records Series 1, volume 2, part 1,
pages 1S7, ,556, 563, says: "on July
20, General Grant issued an order
that this general assault be made on
the next day, leaving all. the details
including the springing of the mine,
to MAJOR General Meade, and he,
or the Same day issued instructions
tts guidance of all concerned.
i d he lidwing ~
3 :38 on the morning Of the 80, Major
General Burnside will spring the
mine and his assaulting columns will
Immediately move rapidly upon the
breach, seize the crest in the rear,
and effect a.lodgment there. Upon
the explosion of the mine all the ar
tillery will open upon the enemy's
works"
But the mine was not exploded un-
til 4:45, just one hour and fifteen
minutes after the appointed hour.
General Grant on the day of the eX-
plosion and after he had learned of
its failure, but before he was aware
of how disastrous the failure was,
thus reported to General Hallock,
chief of staff: Having a mine pre-
pared running for a distance of
eighty feet and twenty-five feet be-
low THE surface of the ground ready
loaded with $4,000 pounds of pow
der, and covered ways made near to
the enemy's line, was sprung at five
o'clock this morning, throwing up
four guns and burying most of a
South Carolina regiment"
"The effort to carry the ridge be-
yond, and which would give us St:
Petersburg and the south banks of
the Appomattax failed" And on the
next day Grant reported:
"The loss in the disaster Of Satur-
day last foots up about $500 Of
whom 45O were killed and 1000
wounded. It was the saddest affair
l have ever witnessed in the war.
Such opportunity for carrying fortl-
fications / have never seen and do
not expect again to have.
City Point, Va,
Aug. 1, 1864.