aring on the right and left of
the 'Crater,' under which fire we would be able to withdraw a greater
portion of our troops, and, in fact, everyone that could get away.
While we were in waiting for the approach of that endorsement and the
opening of the fire, this assaulting column of the enemy came up and
we concluded--General Griffin and myself--that there was no use in
holding it any longer, and so we retired."

This proves beyond doubt that Mahone's charge was after 9.15. It
probably took Burnside some minutes to receive this order and some
minutes for him and Griffin to send it down the line, and to send
orders to the artillery to open on their flanks to protect them. This
would bring Mahone's charge to 9.30 or 9.45.

* * * * *

SMITH AND CRAWFORD SAVE PETERSBURG.

I ordered Smith to take his regiment, the Twenty-sixth, and Crawford
with Companies K, E, and B, to lie down in the ravine. Every General
was ordered to charge to the crest. Had the enemy gotten beyond
Smith's line fifty yards they could have marched in the covered way to
Petersburg; not a cannon or a gun intervened. General Potter says
his men charged two hundred yards beyond the "Crater," when they
were driven back. Colonel Thomas said he led a charge which was not
successful; he went three or four hundred yards and was driven back.
General Griffin says he went about two hundred yards and was driven
back. Colonel Russell says he went about fifty yards towards Cemetery
Hill and "was driven back by two to four hundred infantry, which rose
up from a little ravine and charged us." Some officer said he went
five hundred yards beyond the "Crater." There was the greatest
confusion about distances. General Russell is about right when he said
he went about fifty yards behind the "Crater." When they talk of two
or three hundred yards they must mean outside the breastworks towards
Ransom's Brigade.

From the character of our breastworks, or rather our cross ditches, it
was impracticable to charge down the rear of our breastworks. The only
chance of reaching Petersburg was through the "Crater" to the rear.
Smith and Crawford, whose combined commands did not exceed two hundred
and fifty men, forced them back. Had either Potter, Russell, Thomas,
or Griffin charged down one hundred yards farther than they did, the
great victory would have been won, and Beauregard and Lee would have
been deprived of the great honor of being victor