July 16, 1864
And fine day with signs of rain. We have things about the same as yesterday except that the Rebel shells did not drop right amongst us. But went over and came verry near our mortars. Our boys had the two last shots today & Johny wouldnt reply. Our shell was seen to burst right in or near their mortars. I guess we were rather too much for them. One of their shell struck in the Brestwork in rear of us & after going in several feet flew out & up into the air almost out of sight & off to right angles to the way it came over & went about 40 rods before it lighting. The Battery man went over & got it & put it in & threw it back to the Johnys. When night came & with it the 2nd Brigade we come to our camp & Bivouck for the night The news from Maryland is better. The Rebs are retreating & both cities are safe.
July 17, 1864
And fine day and we enjoy the comforts of camp as well as we can. But what we fixed up the last time the 2nd Brigade carried off. So our camp is bare. There ought to have been a guard left here to watched the camp. When we got breakfast this morning we built brest work in front of our camp so if the Rebs begin to shell, we will have somewhat to lay behind for they can shell these woods all to pieces if they (the Rebs) had a mind to.
July 18, 1864
And fine day. We fix & clean up camp a little &c. Last night about 10 P.M. we were ordered to pack up & be ready to move at a minutes notice for a Johny Deserter came in & told our generals that the Rebs were massing their forces some place on our line to charge & break through. & in about an hour we moved out & our Brigade formed in 2 lines in rear of all the work & at the bottom of the hill & send a detail to the Pioneers Crops. Got shovels & picks &c and built brestworks & good one also in about an hour & then laid down to rest without unpacking so as to be ready for them. But we lay there all night & no alarm so that makes 5 lines of Brestwork on this hill. We came to camp at daylight & that is all about it. I had my doubts about the truth of the thing for he was a Private only & they are not apt to know much about the moves of the army. I know we don’t. But some times such is true & it is best to be ready. It was some of a disappointment to the Boys. But a happy one I guess.
We live well now. We drew potatoes & cabbage &c, things in the Vegatable line. So that we have two or three meals out of a drawing if we boil them. But most of the Boys fry evrything. Fry. Fry. But I & my tentmate (a Dutchman) boil a good deal. Our icehouse has ceased to supply us, it [the ice] being all gone. We get our mail but none comes for me.
July 19, 1864
And fine till toward noon when the rain began to fall & continued for several hours & twas a verry nice gentle rain. I was in hopes that twould rain several days for we need it bad. But we may have some more yet before it clears off. Just at dark a detail was made from our Regt for fatigue. & they went & worked on a new fort they are building on the front line and on the right of our Division. The fort is for mortars, some say 200 pounders & some say 100 pounders &c. I got a paper evry evening a most or rather I furnish the money & some of the Boys go after them as the paper boy don’t get around to us ere his papers give out, so they have to go to Corps Headquarters after them. The news is not exciting. & nothing unusual except the confirmation of Sherman being in front of the fortifications of Atlanta GA & had take 3 or 4 thousand prisnors & the report is he has taken 6000 since. But the last I doubt.177
I got 2 letters last night. One from Henry & one from Mother & Lu. They are all well & doing well as could be expected. The crops are almost a failure. The wheat entirely so. My [heart] leaped for joy when I heard my name called in calling over the mail & then again the 2 time, but when I come to read them I find that they are the answers to the ones I wrote at Camp Distribution. The others of which there is quite a number was sent to the Hospital & they have not been forwarded to me as they should have been.
July 20, 1864
And fine day. We go into the Brestworks at 10 A.M. & relieved the 2nd Brigade. There is roads cut now so that we can come up & the Johnys not see us. There has been a great deal of works made here since I was here before for the mortars &c. There is the usual firing on our right & bombarding &c all around us. The work is beginning to look complete. Some verry nice ones & strong too. There is a great many gabions and fascines used in the construction of these works.178
Just at night there was a detail for Picket made out of our Regt. I being the noncom out of our Co. We went out to the line by the flank & took our positions in the different pits as we came to them, there being a Sergt & two men on the first post & I being the first Corp, I acted as Sergt (as there was no Sergt on the detail). I had command of about half dozen pitts on the right of the line. We found one pit in a bad condition, mud ankle deep & they had piled in a lot of green corn to dry it up & that made it worse by the way [of] a stench. So I took one of our two for to go & get a spade or shovel from the Brestworks & I posted out the videttes [guards or pickets] about 50 yard in front of the pits, one from each pit. They had to stay on till midnight & then I would relieve them with the others & when this done, the man got back with the spade & we cleaned out our pit & fixed it up quite comfortable. & I took the spade along the line to let the others fix theirs. But theirs was in good order, they having the tents over them in yesterdays rain.
I got another letter from Mother & Lu tonight. They are well as usual and evrything is going on about as usual. Evrything in the way of living is raising to a high pitch. I got a paper this evening & I see the President has called for 500,000 more troops to volunteer & gives them fifty days to do it in & then the sweeping draft. I don’t like that. I want the draft for people will not volenteer verry fast. For evrybody most is waiting for the draft and my belief is that they will continue to avoid. The news is nothing of importance.
July 21, 1864
And fine day. We lay, sit, stand or walk around just as we please. The Johny don’t fire at us at all in our front & we don’t. We tried several times to trade papers but the officers or the men wont let us. There is orders against it. I had a paper & wrote a lot of stuff on the margins. It was of the scissorine [?] style. We can cook here on the line or go back to the Brestworks & do it. There was considerable shelling today & our canonier done well. I had the consolation of seeing 5 of the Johnys go off wounded & the Boys says they saw more. Lots of our shell light right in their work & also did some of theirs. I saw one of our men away on the left carried off in a blanket. I guess he was killed. Some Johnys come in & they say if we stay here a month longer our canoniers will be able to hit a copper cent a mile so direct do they shoot. We hollowed back to them when they hollowed to us & had a great deal of sport. Towards night they threw three shells over & none of them burst and our Boys wanted to know of them if they didnt want us to bring them a coal of fire to light their fuses with.
July 22, 1864
And fine day. We have nothing unusual transpired. The news is good. We have captured or rather our Calvelry under [Union General George] Crook has captured 300 wagons from the Maryland raiders & killed & took prisnors, a great many of them & done them a great deal of damage &c and still pursuing them. Making altogather a glorious affair for the Federals. The Rebs are making the best of their way to Richmond.
The news from Shermans Department is glorious. He having got within 7 miles of Atlanta. And the news from Tennessee is glorious. [Union General William Sooy] Smith has whipped [Confederate General Nathan Bedford] Forrest three times & 2500 men & lots of guns &c from him. This last was mostly a cavelry expedition.179
There is another verry important piece of buisness been transacted. It is the going of Col Jaquess [?] & another man to Richmond & back. They being sent by the President. But it is stated not for the purpose of making peace propisitions but it still leaves the public in the dark as to the object of the errand. But the full particulars are to be made public some time in the future. They were entertained in the highest style at the Spottwood house, that being the leading hotel in Richmond. They had gold fork & spoons on the table & plenty of wine & they stayed 3 days &
tis said cost the Rebel government $500 in their money. They visited the Prisnors & report them as doing as well as could be expected. Both on the Island & in the Prisons
July 23, 1864
And fine day. We are relieved this evening & go to camp, find the camp in order there having been a detail sent in to police the camp &c. The news is cheering & reports of Atlanta being captured by Sherman.180 I comenced to write a letter to Lu & Mother today. The usual canonading continues & the spades are still used with good effect. There is being lots of roads cut from the different camps to the works &c.
July 24, 1864
I, with all the Co, am on detail today. We are tearing up the RRoad (that is the Norfolk Road) through the long deep cut near our camp & making a wagon road in it. We all got hold & turned it upside down at the same time laying it by the side of the grade. We done this in the forenoon & in the afternoon we were digging the road. Dig four feet into the ground & throw the dirt up on the side next the enemy thereby making a bank about 8 feet high which is sufficient to screen the teams as they go up to the front. This like many others runs to the main line & this main road runs the length of the Army. By having those roads we can move troops &c without the Rebs knowing it. This is a good plan but takes a great deal of work. The Boys work good saying they would rather die than fight. The news today about the same as yesterday.
July 25, 1864
And rained some last night. Most all night. We were awoke again early this morning to get ready for fatigue. I did not have to go this morning. Sergt [George] Eustice goes today and noncom for each Co each day. They are digging road today again. We don’t get much rest now. Well we would rather do that than fight. I finished my letter to Mother & Lu today & mailed it. Today is kind a cool & pleasant. The news is about the same as yesterday. All reports about Atlanta the same, captured &c.
July 26, 1864
And fine day. We are on fatigue today again. The whole Brigade. But I am on as noncom for our Co. We are digging again today & the Road is most finished. We worked hard all day not stopping for dinner. I formed the Co into 2 reliefs & relieved evry hour so the hour that they was off they got dinner. When six oclock arrived we quit & go & get supper & just dark we are ordered to pack up & go to the Intrenchments. Which we done with some grumbling. We being out of the [works] only three days & working all that time goes pretty hard. But we can stand it.
The news is good. We have good authority of Atlanta being taken with a hard battle. 2000 loss on our side & 6000 on the Rebel side. The latter we hold entire. The Rebel Gen [John Bell] Hood having superceded Gen Johnson [Joseph E. Johnston]. He ordered out the army to give battle which they did in earnest & got badly whipped. Sherman carries evrything along with him. Success to him. Things around here are about the same. Dig, dig & keep digging.
July 27, 1864
And fine day. We go through the usual routine of duty as usual when here. The Boys call it being relieved now when we come into the works. They think being relieved to use the spade is not what it is cracked up to be. So they have just changed it. About last night, one third of the men in each and evry Co have to be up. We are divided in to three reliefs. & a noncom to each relief. I was on the third relief and have to wake all up at 3 oclock & be under arms till daylight.
There is about the usual amount of shelling with the usual precision on our part. The rebs don’t throw much over us today. The Batteries in the rear of us not throwing any, so Johneys don’t when they cant elicit a reply.
July 29, 1864
And fine day. Things the same as yesterday except they are unusually buisy today with the spade & seem to urge the men with the spades pretty hard. There is something unusual to transpire soon to break the monotony as we are pleased to term it now when there is not more than 2 or 300 killed & wounded. The rumor at just night is that all the works are to be filled which have been vacant & sure enough about 10 oclock they commenced the buisness. I was on guard, the first relief last night. But tonight I am to unwell to be on duty & got the captain to excuse me. & I had been sick all day, something like the belious fever & Im afraid I will be sick. The Boys got tools a fixed up, their work good tonight. The report about midnight that we are to give Battle in the morning. & tomorrow morning dawn is the time or rather half past 3 A.M.
Two pages from William Ray’s Volume 12, detailing the July 30, 1864, explosion of the Petersburg Mine. Sherry Murphy
July 30, 1864 [The Battle of the Crater]
And fine warm day & verry warm in the way we verry much dislike as you will see presently. 3 A.M. all awoke ordered to pack up & get into our works preparatory to open at half past 3 oclock. The signal to open would be the blowing up of the fort in the Rebel line which our forces had just finished undermining &c. to blow it up. They having been to work at it about a month. It is situated on an angle of their works so that they can enfilade a good distance of our line with several guns.181
Half past 3 come & it didnt go up & four come & didnt go. We wait rather impatiently & some gazing at it all the while.182 I set down at last & we began to think the thing was put off for today. But half past 4 arrived & with it the shaking of the ground where I sit & kind awakened me. I rocked to & fro, looked at the ground to see the crack that might engulph me the next minute. I couldnt think for a while what it was. Had quite forgotten in my drowsiness what was to transpire. But I arose in a few seconds in coming to my mind & the thing had burst. But still the conglomerat mass had not got to its full height. There were evrything & parts of things whirling & whizzing in the air. It was a grand sight. I might say with truth awfully grand for sending so many souls into eternity so in so short space of time. & just as soon as the thing burst hundreds of pieces of Artillery of different kinds & thousands of small arms belched forth Death & Destruction into the enemies lines & I amongst the rest of them, I being in the front rank had to do firing while others loading. I fired as fast as 3 or 4 could load. As also did the rest of the rest of the front rank. The Rebs didnt reply with small arms with as much strength as a good skirmish line would have done. & this I soon noticed & fired slower & slower advising the Boys to do the same & after a few minutes I didnt fire only about evry 3 or 4 minutes & followed that up till got disgusted at shooting at nothing & sit down. But the greater part of the Boys thought it was fun to fight the rebs behind our own brestworks. At least when they didnt fire any. I say Bravo for them but I tried to get them to fire slow. But no & verry shortly the officers taking notice of the situation ordered us to not fire only as we could see one of them. & so we done it & when we would ease a little they would begin to show themselves again & then they got perhaps a hundred shots & they almost invariably fell. There was some good shots made.183
There was another noticeable feature which I soon noticed. That was that the Rebs replied verry weakly to our Artillery. They would fire one shot to our side (I dare say) 100. & after several hours our artillery slackened a little & kept on till they fired only an occasional shot & we began to do about as we had done before the Battle.
But to return to 5 minutes after the fort blew up & the Boys yells, see our Boys have the fort. No, yes, yes, yes, those are the Blue coats. I looked & they were massed just on front of the ruins of the fort & lots of Greybacks coming Prisnors. Soon they forward. They go over the ruins. Some few Rebs run & many come into our lines. See, see, see our men go over the ruins. All the union flags on the farther side of the fort. Our Boys cheer. We hold it. Fire fast. Don’t let the Rebs raise over their Brestwork. But the Rebs are having a hot fire into the flank of our men from down their line. But tis so far off we cant reach them. Our men pile over & into the fort & we see Rebs come in. Our men begin to fortify themselves. We see the Rebs in great agitation runing towards the fort. But keeping their heads well down. For they got a hundred shot whenever they showed their [heads] and when they passed the embrasures in their forts.184
I tell you about 7 A.M. our side was Bright. But the Rebs I knew were reenforcing from the left. They would come
down to the hollow about opposite & turn & go up it & get back over the hill and go up one by [one] to the right & formed in the woods. This I could see & told our officers so. But I surmise that they didnt heed it any considering the source it come from. Twas not high enough in Authority. But about 8 A.M. it showed itsself for they come out in two, two or three lines of Battle & charged down the open plane. Oh, how they did fall from the galling fire our Brave fellows poured into them. They break. Confusion and many turn back and many others come on up close to the fort. But only to be defeated. Killed. Wounded & many take prisnor. A few went back. Our boys cheer. We still hold the fort. In about an hour another 2 or 3 lines charge down & met the same fate of the former. This time as well as the other, great many of our men run. But there was enough stayed to hold it for a while and many that had at first run now reformed & charged up driving & capturing most of the Rebs. By this time things began to look dubious for there were so many that run & many killed & wounded by the galling flank fire the Rebs had on them. Our fellows after the first charge of the Rebs seemed to be confused & appeared as though they had no officers to command them. By the Bravery of a few out of each & evry Co., perhaps they held it. There was, I guess, about 8000 of our men on & about the fort at one time. But now 9 ¼ oclock & there don’t appear more than a thousand.185
Four Years With the Iron Brigade Page 41