A Stillness at Appomattox (120 page)

Ord
tried
to
advance,
but
the
way
was
jammed
with
IX Corps
troops
and
hardly
more
than
a
handful
of
his
men were
able
to
move.
At
7:20
Burnside
sent
a
wire
to
Meade saying
that
he
was
doing
everything
possible
to
push
his men
forward
to
the
crest
but
that
it
was
very
hard
work,
and Meade
lost
his
temper
and
sent
an
angry
wire
asking
him what
on
earth
was
going
on
and
snapping:
"I
wish
to
know the
truth
and
desire
an
immediate
answer."
Then
Burnside lost
his
temper
and
wired
Meade
that
Meade
had
been
"un-officer-like
and
ungentlemanly";
and
up
in
front
the
Confederates
stitched
together
a
semicircle
of
fire
around
the
attacking
troops
and
the
advance
came
to
a
hopeless
standstill.
²²

At
precisely
which
moment
orders
went
down
to
the
bottom
of
the
ravine
from
corps
headquarters
telling
Ferrero's division
of
colored
troops
to
advance
and
seize
the
crest.

The
colored
boys
had
been
under
arms
since
dawn,
and
as far
as
they
knew
their
original
assignment
was
unchanged: charge
straight
across
the
place
where
the
mine
had
exploded and
take
the
high
ground
that
overlooked
Petersburg.
Top authorities
had
said
that
they
must
not
lead
the
charge
lest they
be
sacrificed;
now,
with
the
battle
lost
beyond
recall, they
were
being
sent
in
for
a
job
that
was
not
even
as
good as
a
forlorn
hope.
They
got
into
the
covered
way,
struggled up
to
the
front
line,
scrambled
over
the
parapet
and
ran
forward
with
a
cheer.
By
now
the
Confederate
defense
was
able to
lay
heavy
fire
on
the
ground
between
the
Union
trench and
the
crater,
so
that
getting
forward
was
costly.
As
the
men advanced
General
Ferrero
dropped
off
in
the
same
bombproof
that
housed
General
Ledlie
and
borrowed
a
swig
of his
jug
of
rum,
leaving
his
brigadiers
to
direct
the
fight.
²³

It
was
impossible
to
go
through
the
crater,
because
it
was full
of
white
troops.
The
colonel
of
the
leading
regiment
saw this
difficulty
and
led
the
command
off
to
the
right.
By
this time
most
of
Potter's
men
had
been
shoved
out
of
the trenches
they
had
seized,
and
the
colored
regiment
found
itself
running
along
between
the
Rebel
abatis
and
a
trenchful of
Southern
infantry—so
close
to
the
trench
that
some
of
the men
were
bayoneted
as
they
ran,
and
those
who
were
shot bore
powder
burns
from
the
flash
of
Rebel
muskets.
As
soon as
the
tail
of
the
regiment
had
cleared
the
crater
the
colonel gave
the
order:
"By
the
left
flank-march!"
followed
by "Charge!"
and
the
men
sprang
into
the
trench,
using
bayonet and
clubbed
musket,
taking
prisoners
and
a
stand
of
colors. A
regimental
officer
had
to
intervene
to
keep
the
men
from killing
their
prisoners.
²⁴

In
the
captured
trench
the
colored
troops
re-formed
for
a further
advance.
It
was
not
easy,
because
the
trench
was
full of
dead
and
wounded
men
of
both
armies,
and
from
in
front and
from
the
right
the
Confederates
were
laying
down
a blistering
fire.
A
colonel
tried
to
organize
a
charge,
but
when he
went
over
the
parapet
he
could
not
get
more
than
fifty men
to
follow
him,
and
the
hostile
fire
quickly
knocked
them back.
Then,
while
officers
were
trying
to
figure
out
what
to do
next,
a
runner
came
up
with
a
message
from
General
Fer
rero:
"If
you
have
not
already
done
so,
you
will
immediately proceed
to
take
the
crest
in
your
front"—which
may
have sounded
like
a
reasonable
order
to
a
man
safely
tucked
away in
a
dugout
far
behind
the
front.
²⁵

Well,
they
tried.
First
the
officers
leaped
up
on
the
parapet,
waving
their
swords
and
shouting,
and
most
of
these were
shot
before
they
took
another
step.
Then
a
scattering of
soldiers
followed
them—200
men,
perhaps,
from
three
regiments—and
a
thin
little
cheer
went
up,
and
the
ragged
line ran
forward.
They
got
almost
to
the
hidden
ravine
where
the Confederates
were
waiting,
and
the
Rebels
came
out
with a
countercharge,
and
for
a
moment
there
was
vicious
combat
rocking
back
and
forth
in
the
open.
Then
the
charge broke,
and
the
colored
men
came
running
back,
most
of
their officers
gone,
regimental
and
company
organizations
wholly mixed
up,
furious
Southern
infantry
on
their
heels.
Such white
troops
as
were
on
the
ground
were
caught
up
in
this retreat,
and
in
another
moment
a
disorganized
mass
of
black and
white
soldiers
in
blue
uniforms
was
running
desperately for
cover,
diving
into
the
trenches
and
rifle
pits
or
streaming for
the
deep
haven
of
the
crater.