es
of human history gave him the mastery of his brain and nerves in the
dark. For a thousand years superstition had been trained out of his
brain fiber. He could hold a firing line day or night. The darkness was
his friend, not his enemy.

The New Englanders were pushed forward for the attack. The grim
preparations were hurried. The pioneers were marshaled with axes and
entrenching tools. A train pulled in from City Point with crowds of
extra surgeons, their amputating tables and bandages ready. The wagons
were loaded with picks and shovels to bury the dead quickly in the
scorching heat of July.

The men waited in impatience for the explosion. It had been set for two
o'clock. For two hours they stood listening. Their hearts were beating
high at first. The delay took the soul out of them. They were angry,
weary, cursing, complaining.

The fuse had gone out. Another had to be trained and set. As the Maine
regiments gripped their muskets waiting for the explosion of the mine, a
negro preacher in the second line behind them was haranguing the Black
Battalions. His drooning, voodoo voice rang through the woods in weird
echoes:

"Oh, my men! Dis here's gwine ter be er great fight. De greatest fight
in all de war. We gwine ter take ole Petersburg dis day. De day er
Juberlee is come. Yes, Lawd! An' den we take Richmon', 'stroy Lee's
army an' en' dis war. Yas, Lawd, an' 'member dat Gen'l Grant an' Gen'l
Burnside, an' Gen'l Meade's is all right here a-watch-in' ye! An' member
dat I'se er watchin' ye. I'se er sargint in dis here comp'ny. Any you
tries ter be a skulker, you'se gwine ter git a beyonet run clean froo
ye--yas, Lawd! You hear me!"

He had scarcely finished his harangue when a smothering peal of thunder
shook the world. The ground rocked beneath the feet of the men. Some
were thrown backwards. Some staggered and caught a comrade's shoulder.
A pillar of blinding flame shot to the stars. A cloud of smoke rolled
upward and spread its pall over the trembling earth. A shower of human
flesh and bones spattered the smoking ground.

The men in front shivered as they brushed the pieces of red meat from
their hands and clothes.

The artillery opened. Hundreds of guns were pouring shells from their
flaming mouths. The people of Petersburg leaped from their beds and
pressed into the streets stunned by the appalling shock and the storm of
artillery which followed.

The ground in front of the tunnel had been cleared of the