Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 02.djvu/298

286 Then Meade's patience seems fairly to have broken down. "What do you mean by hard work to take the crest?" he asks,

To which Burnside, in hot wrath, straight-way replied:

Griffin, it is true, in obedience to orders to advance straight for Cemetery Hill, had during this time attempted several charges from his position north of the Crater, but his men displayed little spirit, and, breaking speedily under the fire of the artillery, sought their old shelter behind the traverses and covered ways. The rest of Potter's division moved out but slowly, and it was fully 8 o'clock —more than three hours after the explosion—when Ferrero's Negro Division, the men beyond question inflamed with drink, burst from the advanced lines, cheering vehemently, passed at a double-quick over the crest under a heavy fire, and rushing with scarce a check over the heads of the white troops in the Crater, spread to their right, capturing more than two hundred prisoners and one stand of colors. At the same moment, Turner of the Tenth corps pushed forward a brigade over the Ninth corps parapets, seized the Confederate line still further to the north, and quickly disposed the remaining brigades of his division to confirm his success.