t warranted by any military efficiency in
themselves.

IX.

THE MINE EXPLOSION.

The end of the month of July was now approaching, and every attempt
made by General Grant to break through Lee's lines had resulted in
failure. At every point which he assailed, an armed force, sufficient
to repulse his most vigorous attacks, seemed to spring from the earth;
and no movement of the Federal forces, however sudden and rapid, had
been able to take the Confederate commander unawares. The campaign was
apparently settling down into stubborn fighting, day and night, in
which the object of General Grant was to carry out his programme of
attrition. Such was the feeling in both armies when, at dawn on the
30th of July, a loud explosion, heard for thirty miles, took place on
the lines near Petersburg, and a vast column of smoke, shooting upward
to a great height, seemed to indicate the blowing up of an extensive
magazine.

Instead of a magazine, it was a mine which had thus been exploded; and
the incident was not the least singular of a campaign unlike any which
had preceded it.

The plan of forming a breach in the Southern works, by exploding a
mine beneath them, is said by Northern writers to have originated with
a subordinate officer of the Federal army, who, observing the close
proximity of the opposing works near Petersburg, conceived it feasible
to construct a subterranean gallery, reaching beneath those of General
Lee. The undertaking was begun, the earth being carried off in
cracker-boxes; and such was the steady persistence of the workmen that
a gallery five hundred feet long, with lateral openings beneath the
Confederate works, was soon finished; and in these lateral recesses
was placed a large amount of powder.

All was now ready, and the question was how to utilize the explosion.
General Grant decided to follow it by a sudden charge through the
breach, seize a crest in rear, and thus interpose a force directly in
the centre of Lee's line. A singular discussion, however, arose, and
caused some embarrassment. Should the assaulting column consist of
white or negro troops? This question was decided, General Grant
afterward declared, by "pulling straws or tossing coppers"--the white
troops were the fortunate or unfortunate ones--and on the morning of
July 30th the mine was exploded. The effect was frightful, and the
incident will long be remembered by those present and escaping
unharmed. The small Southern force