he north. Besides
these traverses there were narrow ditches five or six feet deep which
led to the sinks.

The only safe way to Petersburg, a mile off, was to go down to the
spring branch which passed under our lines at the foot of the hill,
then go to the left through the covered way to Petersburg, or to
take the covered way which was half way down the hill to Elliott's
headquarters.

At this point a ravine or more properly a swale ran up the hill
parallel to our breastworks. It was near Elliott's headquarters where
Mahone's troops went in from the covered way and formed in battle
array.

The soldiers slept in the main trench. At times of heavy rains the
lower part of the trench ran a foot deep in water. The officers slept
in burrows dug in the sides of the rear ditches. There were traverses,
narrow ditches, cross ditches and a few mounds over officers' dens,
so that there is no wonder that one of the Federal officers said the
quarters reminded him of the catacombs of Rome.

An ordinary mortal would not select such a place for a three mouths'
summer residence.

About ten days after the battle, and while I was acting Brigadier
General and occupying General Elliott's headquarters, a distinguished
Major General visited me and requested me to go over the lines with
him. I gladly complied with the request. He asked me where the men
rested at night. I pointed out the floor of the ditch. He said, "But
where do the officers sleep?" We happened then to be in the narrow
ditch in front of my quarters, and I pointed it out to him. He
replied, in language not altogether suitable for a Sunday School
teacher, that he would desert before he would submit to such
hardships.

* * * * *

THE "CRATER."

The explosion took place at 4.45 A.M. The "Crater" made by eight
thousand pounds of gun powder was one hundred and thirty-five feet
long, ninety-seven feet broad and thirty feet deep. Two hundred and
seventy-eight men were buried in the debris--Eighteenth Regiment,
eighty-two; Twenty-second, one hundred and seventy, and Pegram's
Battery, twenty-two men.

To add to the terror of the scene the enemy with one hundred and
sixty-four cannon and mortars began a bombardment much greater than
Fort Sumter or battery were ever subjected to. Elliott's Brigade near
the "Crater" was panic stricken, and more than one hundred men of the
Eighteenth Regiment covered with dirt rushed down. Two or three noble
so