The Southern historian Pollard thus
describes the situation after the assault and the ground had again come
into the possession of the confederates:

[ILLUSTRATION: BEFORE PETERSBURG.

Phalanx soldiers, under a flag of truce, burying their dead after one of
the terrible battles before Petersburg.]

"The ground all around was dotted with the fallen, while the
sides and bottom of the crater were literally lined with
dead, the bodies lying in every conceivable position. Some
had evidently been killed with the butts of muskets, as
their crushed skulls and badly smashed faces too plainly
indicated.' Within this crater--this hole of forty by eighty
feet--were lying one hundred and thirty-six dead soldiers,
besides the wounded. The soil was literally saturated with
blood. General Bartlett was here, with his steel leg broken.
He did not look as though he had been at a 'diamond
wedding,' but was present at a 'dance of death.' A covered
way for artillery was so full of dead that details were made
to throw them out, that artillery might be brought in. The
dead bodies formed a heap on each side. The Alabamians
captured thirty-four officers, five hundred and thirty-six
white and one hundred and thirty-nine colored soldiers. The
three brigades had seventeen stands of colors, held by
seventeen as brave, sweaty, dirty, powder-stained fellows as
ever wore the gray, who knew that, when presenting their
colors to division headquarters, to each a furlough of
thirty days would be granted.

"The crater was filled with wounded, to whom our men gave
water. Adjutant Morgan Cleveland, of the 8th Alabama
Regiment, assisted a federal captain who was mortally
wounded and suffering intensely. Near him lay a burly,
wounded negro. The officer said he would die. The negro,
raising himself on his elbow, cried out: 'Thank God. You
killed my brother when we charged, because he was afraid and
ran. Now the rebels have killed you.' Death soon ended the
suffering of one and the hatred of the other. A darkness
came down on the battle-field and the victors began to
repair the salient. The crater was cleared of the dead and
wounded. Men were found buried ten feet under the dirt.
Twenty-two of the artillery company were missing. Four
hundred and ninety-eight dead and wounded confeder