Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/31

 The Battle of the Crater. 31

more men in there. That colored division should never have been sent in there; but there is a furor there, and perhaps they may move off sufficiently for me to pass my division out.' '

General Ord, in his testimony, using vigorous language, says:

" The men had to go through a long, narrow trench, about one- third of a mile in length, before they got into our extreme out-work, and then they went into this Crater, and were piled into that hole, where they were perfectly useless. They were of about as much use there as so many men at the bottom of a well."

The stampede which took place when Mahone's brigade made its charge is thus described by General Turner in his testimony:

"I had got, probably, half way between our line and the enemy's lines which were perhaps only a hundred yards apart at that point, and it was a very broken country, thick underbrush and morass when, looking to the left, I saw the troops in vast numbers coming rushing back, and immediately my whole first brigade came back, and then my second brigade on my right, and everything was swept back in and around the Crater, and probably all but about one-third of the original number stampeded back right into our lines. After some exertion I rallied my men of the First and Second brigades after they got into our lines, while my Third brigade held the line."

General Carr, who commanded a division of the Eighteenth corps, in his testimony thus describes the stampede:

" I saw a vacancy a gap that I thought about four regiments would fill, and assist that line of battle that was going over our breastworks to take those rifle pits. I immediately took command of part of Turner's division, and ordered them over the line to join the line of troops then advancing, and told them to charge the rifle- pits in their front, which they did. That was about two hundred yards on the right of the Crater. After putting those troops in, I stepped back from the entrenchment some ten or fifteen yards to- wards the covered way, and I had scarcely got back to the lower end of the covered way when the stampede began, and I suppose two thousand troops came back, and I was lifted from my feet by the rushing mass, and carried along with it ten or fifteen yards in the covered way. What staff I had with me assisted me in stopping the