Meade issued his orders of battle.
As soon as it was dusk,
Burnside was to mass his troops in front of the point to be attacked, and form them in columns of assault, taking care to remove the abatis, so that the troops could debouch rapidly, and to have his pioneers equipped for opening pasages for the artillery.
He was to spring the mine at 3.30 A. M., and, moving rapidly through the breach, seize the crest of
Cemetery Hill, a ridge four hundred yards in rear of the. Confederate lines.
Ord was to mass the Eighteenth corps in rear of the Ninth, immediately follow
Burnside and support him on the right.
Warren was to reduce the number of men holding his front to the minimum, concentrate heavily on the right of his corps, and support
Burnside on the left.
Hancock was to mass the Second corps in rear of the trenches, at that time held by
Ord, and be prepared to support the assault as events might dictate.
1
Engineer officers were detailed to accompany each corps, and the
Chief Engineer was directed to park his ponton-train at a convenient point, ready to move at a moment's warning, for
Meade, having assured himself that the
Confederates had no second line on
Cemetery Hill, as he had formerly supposed and as
Duane had positively reported,
2 was now sanguine of success, and made these preparations to meet the contingency of the meagre Confederate force retiring beyond the
Appomattox and burning the bridges; in which event, he proposed to push immediately across that river and
Swift Creek and open up communication with
Butler at
Bermuda Hundred before
Lee could send any reinforcements from his five divisions north of the
James.
3
To cover the assault, the
Chief of Artillery was to concentrate a heavy fire on the Confederate batteries commanding the salient and its approaches, and to this end, eighty-one heavy guns and mortars
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and over eighty light guns were placed in battery on that immediate front.
4 Burnside had urged that
