ldiers asked me for muskets. Some climbed the counterscarpe and
made their way for Petersburg. Numbers of the Seventeenth joined the
procession. I saw one soldier scratching at the counterscape of the
ditch like a scared cat. A staunch Lieutenant of Company E. without
hat or coat or shoes ran for dear life way down into Ransom's
trenches. When he came to consciousness he cried out, "What! old Morse
running!" and immediately returned to his place in line.

The same consternation existed in the Federal line. As they saw the
masses descending they broke ranks, and it took a few minutes to
restore order.

* * * * *

FEDERAL CHARGE.

About fifteen minutes after the explosion General Ledlie's Corps
advanced in line. The cheval-de-frise was destroyed for fifty yards.
Soon after General Wilcox's Corps came in line and bore to Ledlie's
left. Then Potter's Corps followed by flanks and was ordered to the
right of Ledlie's troops.

The pall of smoke was so great that we could not see the enemy until
they were in a few feet of our works, and a lively fusillade was
opened by the Seventeenth Regiment on the north side of the "Crater."
I saw Starling Hutto, of Company H, a boy of sixteen, on the top of
the breastworks, firing his musket at the enemy a few yards off with
the coolness of a veteran. As soon as I reached him I dragged him down
by his coat tail and ordered him to shoot from the banquette. On
the south of the "Crater" a few men under Major Shield, of the
Twenty-second, and Captain R.E. White, with the Twenty-third Regiment,
had a hot time in repelling the enemy.

Adjutant Sims and Captain Floyd, of the Eighteenth Regiment, with
about thirty men, were cut off in the gorge line. They held the line
for a few minutes. Adjutant Sims was killed and Captain Floyd and his
men fell back into some of the cross ditches and took their chances
with the Seventeenth.

It was half an hour before the Federals filled the "Crater," the gorge
line and a small space of the northern part of the works not injured
by the explosion. All this time the Federals rarely shot a gun on the
north of the "Crater."

Major J.C. Coit, who commanded Wright's Battery and Pegram's battery,
had come up to look after the condition of the latter. He concluded
that two officers and twenty men were destroyed. Subsequently he
discovered that one man had gone to the spring before the explosion,
that four men were saved by a ca