[172] thereto from letters contemporaneously written to my wife, whom I had but a short time before married, which letters, as well as extracts from Richmond papers of that date, as contemporary records, will probably prove of sufficient interest to publish herewith. The Petersburg correspondent of the Richmond Dispatch of July 30, 1864, after describing the charge made by the Virginia and Georgia brigades, says:
About this time General Mahone, having ordered up Saunders' Alabama brigade, sent it forward to recapture the rest of the works. Led by their gallant brigadier, they moved forward in splendid style, making one of the grandest charges of the war, and recapturing every vestige of our lost grand and other lost guns and capturing thirty-five commissioned officers, including Brigadier General Bartlett, commanding first brigade, first division, ninth corps, three hundred and twenty-four white and one hundred and fifty negro privates, and two stands of colors.Under date of Sunday, 31, the Richmond Dispatch reports:
All quiet today. Our wounded are being cared for, and the dead on both sides in our lines are being buried. Still they come. Saunders of the Alabama brigade has just sent in another battle flag, thrown away by the enemy yesterday and picked up by General Saunders's men this morning. General Saunders reports that he has buried in the mine alone fifty-four negroes and seventy-eight Yankees, exclusive of the men buried in the trenches.The following extract is from the Dispatch of August 3, 1864:
For five hours the work of burying the dead went vigorously forward. The Yankees brought details of negroes, and we carried their negro prisoners out under guard to help them in their work. Over seven hundred Yankees, whites and negroes, were buried. A. P. Hill was there with long gauntlets, a slouch hat and round jacket. Mahone, dressed in little boy fashion out of clothes made from old Yankee tent cloth, was beside himself. The gallant Harris of the Mississippi brigade, and the gallant intrepid Saunders, who but forty-eight hours before had so successfully retaken those works, the best looking and best
