In the assault following the mine explosion many men from the First Division became trapped when they took shelter inside the crater instead of moving around it. As the attack became increasingly disorganized, the black troops of the Fourth Division were sent forward. They succeeded in capturing a Confederate defense line beyond the crater before being driven back by a counterattack launched around 9 A.M. Fighting continued into the afternoon as the Confederates eventually regained the ground they had lost in the morning. Union losses totaled about 3,800 men killed, wounded, or missing, including 1,300 from the Fourth Division, while the Confederates lost about 1,500 men. Brigadier General James H. Ledlie, who had spent much of the battle drinking liquor in a bombproof shelter, was relieved of command of the First Division, while Burnside was sent home on leave for the remainder of the war. Lieutenant Colonel William Pegram, a veteran artillery officer in the Army of Northern Virginia, wrote to his sister about the battle and the killing of black prisoners by Confederate troops.
Petersburg, Aug: 1st 1864.
My dear Jenny
I believe that you owe me a letter, but of this I am not certain; and even if I was, it would not prevent my writing to you, as I wish to set you a good example as a correspondent.
I supose you all have gotten, before this, a correct account of the affair on Saturday. It was an exceedingly brilliant one for us.
The enemy avoided our mine, & ran theirs under Cousin Dick’s Batty. They blew it up about daylight, & taking advantage of the temporary confusion & demoralization of our troops at that point, rushed a large body of whites & blacks into the breach. This turned out much worse for them in the end. The ever ready Mahone was carried down to retake the line with his fine troops, which he did, with comparatively small loss to himself, & great loss to the enemy. I never saw such a sight as I saw on that portion of the line—for a good distance in the trenches, the Yankees, white & black, principally the latter, were piled two or three or four deep. A few of our men were wounded by the negroes, which exasperated them very much. There were hardly less than six hundred dead—four hundred of whom were negroes. As soon as we got upon them, they threw down their arms to surrender, but were not allowed to do so. Every bomb proof I saw, had one or two dead negroes in it, who had skulked out the fight, & been found & killed by our men. This was perfectly right, as a matter of policy. I think over two hundred negroes got into our lines, by surrendering & running in, along with the whites, while the fighting was going on. I don’t believe that much over half of these ever reached the rear. You could see them lying dead all along the route to the rear. While there was a temporary lull in the fighting, after we had recaptured the first portion of the line, & before we recaptured the second, I was down there, & saw a fight between a negro & one of our men in the trench. I suppose that the Confederate told the negro he was going to kill him, after he had surrendered. This made the negro desperate, & he grabbed up a musket, & they fought quite desperately for a little while with bayonets, until a bystander shot the negro dead.
It seems cruel to murder them in cold blood, but I think the men who did it had very good cause for doing so. Gen. Mahone told me of one man who had a bayonet run through his cheek, which instead of making him throw down his musket & run to the rear, as men usually do when they are wounded, exasperated him so much that he killed the negro, although in that condition. I have always said that I wished the enemy would bring some negroes against this army. I am convinced, since Saturday’s fight, that it has a splendid effect on our men.
I did not fire any guns on Saturday, but got some in position, where they were exposed to some shelling & musketry. My hat was struck by a Minie ball just over the place I was wounded at Sharpsburg, which was quite a singular coincidence. I saw Cousin Dick Pegram after the fight. Fortunately, he had been relieved, & was not in the trenches when the mine was sprung.
On the whole, Saturday was, through the merciful kindness of an all & ever-merciful God, a very brilliant day to us. The enemy’s loss was, at the lowest figures, three to our one—but the moral effect to our arms was very great. For it shews that he cannot blow us out of our works; or, at least, that he cannot hold a breach after making it. Saturday’s fight shewed also the superiority of veterans to new troops—i.e. of Lee’s to Beauregard’s troops. They had to take Mahone’s Division from this portion of the line, to that point, near the centre, to retake & reestablish the line, because those troops failed, although, as I was told by one of Beauregard’s staff, they had a very fine opportunity for doing so immediately after the explosion.
Uncle William will probably go over with his family about the middle of the week. In case they do, I will write to Mother by them. Uncle William is now laid up with the gout, & it is somewhat doubtful.
Uncle Duke told me that he saw all at home, but yourself—that you had gone out.
I suppose you are all grieving today at Brother’s proposed departure tomorrow. I wish very much that I could be with him & you all, but this is impossible. God has been so merciful to us, that I trust implicitly that we will be reunited again on this earth. If not, then certainly in a far better home. Have Uncle Robert & Jimmy determined yet about going abroad? Tell Jimmy to remember that he owes me a letter, which I hope to receive soon.
Tell Mother & Sister, with much love, that they had better go with you to the country somewhere, as you will all be benefitted by the change. How are Aunt Lelia & Mattie? Tell Aunt Lelia that I was at Aunt Martha’s yesterday, & all were well. Aunt Martha told me that Aunt Lelia had written over, with an invitation from Mother for Nannie to come over to Richmond. I was glad to hear this. She is a very sweet child, & will be a very pretty woman; but lacks grace.
Is there any news from Atlanta? I am looking daily for its fall. If Maj Bradford is still with you, give him my love—& Ask him why he does not run over. Excuse haste. Your devoted brother
W. J. Pegram
Col. McIntosh was slightly wounded on Saturday—not sufficiently however to go off duty.