gade still found shelter behind the traverses and bomb-proofs, and did not easily yield.[1]
Meanwhile, General Meade,
"GROPING IN THE DARK,"
to use his own phrase,[2] 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.[3]
Ord was now directed to push forward the Eighteenth corps, and the following dispatch was sent to Burnside:
July 30th, 1864, 6 A. M.
Major-General 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.
Major-General Commanding.
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.[4]
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."
- ↑ For all statements in above paragraph, cf. Report on the Conduct of the War (1865), vol. i, pp. 21, 92, 94, 96, 121, 157, 177, 201.
- ↑ "I have been groping in the dark since the commencement of the attack"—Meade.—Ib., p. 71.
- ↑ Ib., p. 53.
- ↑ See testimony of General Ord—Ib., pp. 172, 173; General Grant, p. 110; cf. also, Ib., pp. 197, 210. For state of debouches, see Ord's official report, August 3, 1864—Ib., p. 101.
