“Groping in the dark,”
to use his own phrase,
1 sent telegram upon telegram to
Burnside to know how fared the day, but received answer to none.
At fifteen minutes to six, however, one hour after
Ledlie's men had occupied the breach, an orderly delivered to him a note in pencil, written from the Crater by
Colonel Loring,
Inspector-General of the Ninth corps, and addressed to
General Burnside.
This was
Meade's first information from the front and was little cheering, for
Loring stated briefly that
Ledlie's men were in confusion and would not go forward.
2
Ord was now directed to push forward the Eighteenth corps, and the following dispatch was sent to
Burnside:
Prisoners taken say that there is no line in their rear, and that their men were falling back when ours advanced; that none of their troops have returned from the
James.
Our chance is now. Push your men forward at all hazards,
white and
black, and don't lose time in making formations, but rush for the crest.
But
Ord could not advance, for the narrow
debouches were still choked up by the men of the Ninth corps and by the wounded borne from the front, and although
Burnside promptly transmitted the order to his subordinates, the troops in rear moved with reluctant step, while no general of division was present with those in front to urge them forward.
3
Again did
Meade telegraph to
Burnside: “Every moment is most precious; the enemy are undoubtedly concentrating to meet you on the crest.”
But not until twenty minutes past seven, did he receive a reply, and then briefly to the effect that
Burnside “hoped to carry the crest, but that it was hard work.”
[
288]
Then
Meade's patience seems fairly to have broken down.
“What do you mean by hard work to take the crest?”
he asks,
I understand not a man has advanced beyond the enemy's line which you occupied immediately after exploding the mine.
Do you mean to say your officers and men will not obey your orders to advance?
If not, what is the obstacle?
I wish to know the truth, and desire an immediate answer.
To which
Burnside, in hot wrath, straight-way replied:
Your dispatch by
Captain Jay received.
The main body of
General Potter's division is beyond the Crater.
I do not mean to say that my officers and men will not obey my orders to advance.
I mean to say that it is very hard to advance to the crest.
I have never in any report said anything different from what I conceived to be the truth.
Were it not insubordinate, I would say that the latter remark of your note was unofficerlike and ungentlemanly.
Griffin, it is true, in obedience to orders to advance straight for
Cemetery Hill, had during this time attempted several charges from his position north of the Crater, but his men displayed little spirit, and, breaking speedily under the fire of the artillery, sought their old shelter behind the traverses and covered ways.
4 The rest of
Potter's division moved out but slowly, and it was fully 8 o'clock--
5more than three hours after the explosion — when
Ferrero's Negro Division, the men beyond question inflamed with drink,
6 burst from the advanced lines, cheering vehemently, passed at a double-quick over the crest under a heavy fire, and rushing with scarce a check over the heads of the white troops in the Crater, spread to their right, capturing more than two hundred prisoners and one stand of colors.
7 At the same moment,
Turner of the Tenth corps pushed forward a brigade over the Ninth corps parapets, seized the
Confederate line still further to the north, and quickly disposed the remaining brigades of his division to confirm his success.
8 
