less than 3,000 men and with a casualty list of 598, they killed 700 of the enemy's people, wounded, by his own account, over 3,000, and captured 1,101 prisoners, embracing 87 officers, 17 stands of colors, 2 guerdons and 1,916 stand of small arms—deeds which entitle their banners to the inscription, 'The Crater, Petersburg, July 30, 1864.' He says the enemy had massed against us three of his corps and two divisions of another."
The foregoing brief entries are all that I find in my diary relating to the battle.
From information subsequently obtained I am able to correct some of the statements therein made:
In Comrade W. Gordon McCabe's admirable address, entitled "The Defence of Petersburg," the accuracy and fullness of the information contained in which are only equalled by the clear and beautiful language in which it is conveyed, the statement is made that the loss of life caused by the explosion of the mine was 256 officers and men of the Eighteenth and Twenty-second South Carolina regiments and two officers and twenty men of Pegram's Petersburg battery. This battery was commanded by Captain Richard G. Pegram, who was absent on duty, and thus escaped what befell his two lieutenants, Hamlin and Chandler.
In a letter published in September, 1878, Dr. Hugh Toland, surgeon of the Eighteenth South Carolina, locates this regiment as on the left, or north, of Pegram's battery, and the Twenty-second South Carolina as on the right, or south, of this battery at the time of the explosion.
"My brigade," says Dr. Toland, "had suffered severely—the Twenty-second South Carolina had lost its gallant Colonel Fleming, and many a brave soldier. My regiment had lost 163 men. Two whole companies, A and C, Eighteenth South Carolina, had not a man left, who was on duty, to tell the tale. One hundred and one of my men, including Capts. McCormich and Bridges were dead—buried in the Crater or scattered along the works—and 62 missing."
Giving the Federal loss in this engagement, Captain McCabe in his address says:
"In this grand assault on Lee's lines, for which Meade had massed 65,000 troops, the enemy suffered a loss of 5,000 men, including
