Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 18.djvu/33

 The Battle of the Crater. 33

The statement here made that the charge was made by Mahone's brigade, with the Sixty- first, Twenty-fifth and Forty ninth North Carolina and the Twenty-sixth and part of the Seventeenth South Carolina regiments, is as clearly incorrect as is the statement that Mahone arrived about ten o'clock, after General Meade issued his orders above referred to.

Against this statement as to time we may safely place that of Colo- nel Venable, of General Lee's staff, made in 1872, in which he says: " I know that it is difficult to be accurate as to time on the battle-field, unless noted and written down at the moment. But I am confident this charge of the Virginians was made before 9 o'clock A. M. I know, from my recollection of the notes received and answered by General Lee, that after the charge, the formation of the Georgia brigade, under Colonel Hall, was completed, and after some delay was moved around under the slope, more to the right, and made a charge at 10 o'clock to recover that portion of the line on the right of the Crater."

But we are not without a contemporaneous record to prove beyond all controversy that the charge of Mahone's brigade was made prior to 9 o'clock A. M., and therefore to the several orders issued by General Meade to suspend operations and withdraw the troops.

General Meade, in his testimony before the Committee on the Con- duct of the War, says:

"At 9 A.'M. I received the following dispatch from General Burn- side :

[ By telegraph from Headquarters Ninth Army Corps.}

"' 9 A. M.July 30,1864. "'GEN. MEADE:

"'Many of the Ninth (gth) and Eighteenth (i8th) corps are re- tiring before the enemy. I think now is the time to put in the Fifth (5th) corps promptly.

"'A. E. BURNSIDE,

" ' Major- General.

'"[Official.] '"S. F. BARSTOW,

' ' 'Assistant Adjutant- General. '

"That was the first information I had received that there was any collision with the enemy, or that there was any enemy present. At 9:30 A. M. the following dispatch was sent to General Burnside: