1864.] A MINE IS EXPLODED. 423 CHAPTER XXXV. SHERIDAN'S RIDE. GRANT'S great object in going south of the James had been to cut his adversary's communications, and isolate the rebel capital from the rest of the confederacy. The movement uncovered Washington; but the Union army was so near Richmond that the enemy's forces were kept busy at home. There was little rest for Lee. Sheridan, with a large force, cut the railways north of Richmond, and so alarmed him for the safety of Early, in the Shenandoah valley, that he detached many troops to look after the troublesome general of cavalry, and so weakened his Petersburg front. This was exactly what Grant wanted. A month earlier, he had begun a mine, suggested by Colonel Pleasance, of a Pennsylvania mining-region regiment. He pushed it forward from a ravine in front of Burnside's corps for five hundred feet, until it was under a formidable rebel fort upon "Cemetery Ridge," which proved to be a singularly appropriate The tunnel-four and a half feet high, four feet wide at the bottom and narrowing toward the top-was twenty feet under ground when it reached the enemy's work. Wings were cut to the right and left, forming chambers, which were charged with four tons of gunpowder, heavily tamped with wood and sand-bags. name. Meade, whose lines here were only a hundred and fifty yards from Lee's, prepared to open a cannonade with every gun on our front, the moment the mine should be fired, and also to throw a storming party through the gap to carry a strong crest in the rear of the fort, commanding Petersburg. At half-past three, on the morning of July thirtieth, the fuse was lighted, and the fire disappeared, hissing in the 424 HORRIBLE SCENES IN THE CRATER. [1864. earth. But the entrance was long and damp, and the army waited in vain. Finally, two brave soldiers went a hundred feet into the gallery and relit the fuse, which had gone out at a splicing. Still the fire crept forward but slowly. Five o'clock, however, brought a tremendous thud, like the rumbling of an earthquake, repeated again and again, as successive chambers exploded. Instantaneously the air was darkened with human bodies, guns, caissons, and timbers, which rose mountain-high like an enormous inverted cone; seemed poised in the heavens for a moment; and then fell all around, like the spray of a vast infernal fountain. Portions of several South Carolina regiments guarding the fort, were blown to atoms. Our guns opened, and, during the heaviest artillery thunder ever heard on the continent, a Union column rushed into the crater, which was six hundred feet long, sixty wide, and thirty deep. But the division charged with this important duty-unfortunately selected by lot-proved the very worst in Burnside's entire corps. It captured two hundred living prisoners; but, by some terrible mistake, halted in the pit instead of rushing forward upon the ridge. The rebels, rallying almost instantly, poured a terrible fire into the crater. A second (negro) division, ordered out to support the first, had reached it, and our troops were huddled together, among their dead and dying foes. A third division, also, was flung into the imminent deadly breach, and a vain attempt made to carry the crest. But a crossfire from works upon both flanks, raked the intervening ground, and also the strip of land in the rear, between the blown-up fort and our intrenchments. The crater proved a slaughter-pen for both sides. Halfburied rebels cried out to the negroes, "Help! for God's sake, help!" Hundreds of wounded begged piteously for water, and many were torn in pieces by confederate and Union guns. About noon a retreat was ordered, and those who were fortunate enough to outlive the storm of flying missiles, got back to our line. The wounded lay exposed for thirty 1864.] SHERIDAN SENT TO THE SHENANDOAH. 425 six hours, while Burnside's request for a cessation of hostilities to relieve them was referred to Richmond. The rebels, meanwhile, had recaptured the fort; and before receiving an answer they permitted our officers to give a drink of brandy and water to each sufferer, in the blazing sun between the lines. They refused to let our men approach the crater, lest they should see exactly what damage had been done, and administered themselves to the wounded, white and black, who were lying there. The next day a truce of four hours was granted. But few survivors remained to be succored. The negroes had behaved with conspicuous gallantry, and lost four times as many as the whites. Ten minutes after the last dead were buried the firing re-opened. The General and the Government were deeply grieved at this bloody failure of the most promising attempt of the year. An investigating board of officers, reported as the chief causes that the assaulting columns were not properly selected, nor all properly led; that there was no competent directing head on the spot; and that the advance halted in the crater, when it should have hurried forward to carry the crest. Again there was trouble from the Shenandoah. Again, Early marching down the valley crossed the Potomac. His cavalry occupied the undefended town of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, and demanded a ransom of half a million of dollars. The people were unwilling or unable to pay, and the place was burned, in retaliation for alleged outrages in Virginia, by Union troops. As telegraphic communication between City Point and Washington was frequently broken, it became of vital importance to place an able general in charge of all the troops guarding the capital, and the great southern highway to the Potomac. By this time Sheridan had left little rebel cavalry worthy of the name, and his fighting and raiding had won wide-spread fame. Grant sent him to command the forces watching Early. During August, and the early days of September, he remained near Winchester, across the path of the enterprising rebel. By biding his time for |