Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

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Freedom by the Sword: The U.S. Colored Troops, 1862–1867
This drawing by Alfred R. Waud shows the explosion of the Petersburg mine in the
right-center distance.
in the brigade was still recruiting, having managed to fill only six of its companies
by late May. 50
Two of the five regiments in the second brigade of Ledlie’s division had served
with the IX Corps since 1862, but the other three had completed organization only in
April. It was natural that these new troops, recalling the 35 percent casualties that the
army had suffered during May and June followed by weeks of trench warfare, reverted
to what Burnside called “the habit, which had almost become second nature, of protecting
themselves from the fire of the enemy” by crowding into the crater. The men
of Lieutenant Verplanck’s old regiment in Hinks’ division were not the only soldiers
who wanted to stay “as close to the ground as they could get.” General Ledlie’s absence
did not help. Surgeon Hamilton E. Smith testified afterward that Ledlie spent time that
day at an aid station of General Willcox’s division, asking for “stimulants” to treat his
malaria. After a while, the general added a bruise from a spent rifle ball to the list of
his maladies. 51
The month had been dry and hot, with afternoon temperatures sometimes above 95
degrees. By 30 July, no rain had fallen around Richmond for six days, and the shower
that fell then had been only the third of the month. Dust from the drought joined smoke
from the explosion hanging in the air as two more divisions of the IX Corps tried to find
50 OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 1, pp. 246, 527, 535, 539, 547, 558, 563 (diagram); Report of the Joint
Committee, 2: 19, 39, 77, 79, 107; Dyer, Compendium, passim.
51 OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 1, pp. 60 (“the habit”), 104, 118–19, 177, 527, 541, 547, 564. R. N.
Verplanck to Dear Mother, 27 Jul 1864, Verplanck Letters.