Freedom by the Sword - US Army Center Of Military History

Virginia, May–October 1864 363
with dead rebels dead union soldiers white & black wounded too of every description
& soldiers both white & black clambering through . . . over the shrieking wounded.
One staff officer in Sigfried’s brigade claimed that only Colonel Bates’ 30th USCI
maintained a semblance of order on its way forward through the crater. 56
This disorganization began to tell when officers tried to assemble their
troops for an attack on the crest, which still remained in Confederate hands.
Afterward, Ferrero told investigators that his men “went in without hesitation,
moved right straight forward, passed through the crater that was filled with
troops, and all but one regiment of my division passed beyond the crater.” Two
questions later, though, he had to admit that he was not present, but “at no time
[was] farther [away] than eighty or ninety yards.” If he remained in or behind
the Union front trench, from which his men attacked, he would have been at
least one hundred fifty yards from the crater, for the miners’ tunnel was more
than five hundred ten feet long. Ferrero’s remarks also contradict the testimony
of the officer who had been in the crater and claimed that only the 30th USCI
moved through it without much confusion. 57
The brigade commanders told a grimmer story. Brig. Gen. John F. Hartranft
of Willcox’s division said that Ferrero’s men “passed to the front just
as well as any troops; but they were certainly not in very good condition . . . ,
because in passing through the crater they got confused; their regimental and
company organization was completely gone.” In Sigfried’s brigade, the only
regiment that managed to close with the enemy was the 43d USCI, which took
one Confederate battle flag from the enemy and recaptured colors that had been
lost earlier in the day by a white regiment of the IX Corps. Sigfried recorded
that the 43d returned with “a number” of prisoners, despite the men’s earlier
vows to “Remember Fort Pillow!” On the left, Thomas tried to order a charge,
but the 31st USCI had just lost its three ranking officers and only about fifty of
the men responded: “the fire was so hot that half the few [men] who came out
of the works were shot,” he reported. Thomas then spent some time trying to
separate men of the 28th and 29th USCIs from the armed mob in the crater and
form them into a coherent body. Just as he was about to accomplish this, he received
a message from Ferrero, whom he had not seen since leaving the Union
front trench: “Colonels Sigfried and Thomas . . . : If you have not already done
so, you will immediately proceed to take the crest in your front.” Accordingly,
some one hundred fifty or two hundred men of the 23d, 28th, and 29th USCIs
moved forward about fifty yards until they met “a heavy charging column of
the enemy” of perhaps twice their strength “and after a struggle [were] driven
back over our rifle pits. At this moment a panic commenced,” Thomas reported.
“The black and white troops came pouring back together.” Many of them
crowded into the crater. Sigfried’s brigade held on “until pushed back by the
56 OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 1, pp. 105, 586, 590, 596 (“living, wounded”), 598; Rickard to Dear
Sister, 31 Jul 1864. Brigade strengths based on figures for IX Corps, 30 June and 31 July 1864, in
OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 2, p. 542, and pt. 3, p. 78; Field Return, 20 Jun 1864, and Casualty List, 30 Jul
1864, both in Entry 5122, 4th Div, IX Corps, LS, pt. 2, RG 393, NA.
57 OR, ser. 1, vol. 40, pt. 1, p. 93.