July 30, 1864
My spirits to-night are not very high; our project of
attack, which in the beginning promised well, has not been a success in the
result. You must know that there has always been a point on Burnside's line
that was quite near that of the enemy, say 250 feet. A mine was begun there
over a month since, and has been quite finished for a week. It was at first
rather an amateur affair, for the policy of the future operations had not then
been fixed. However, it was steadily pushed, being in charge of Colonel
Pleasants, who has a regiment of Pennsylvania coal-miners. He first ran a
subterranean gallery, straight out to the enemy's bastion, where they had four
guns. Then three lateral passages were made, each terminating in a chamber, to
be filled with gunpowder. These chambers or magazines were about twenty feet
underground. The final springing of the mine was delayed, in order to build
heavy batteries and get the guns and mortars in. A couple of days ago orders
were given to charge the chambers with 8000 pounds of gunpowder (four tons).1
The powder was laboriously carried in in kegs (the gallery was so low, the men
were forced to double themselves over in passing), and the kegs were packed in,
after removing their heads. When a chamber was charged, loose powder was poured
over the whole. The magazines were connected by a wooden casing filled with
powder, and this was also run along the gallery for some distance, where it was
connected to a fuse which ran to the mouth of the gallery.
To-morrow I will continue, but now it is rather late.
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1 “Duane had sent for the mining records before
Sebastopol and got me to read them to learn the proper charge; for, what with
malaria, and sunstroke, and quinine, whiskey, and arsenic, he can hardly see, but
clings to duty to the last! Finding nothing there, he said the book was a
humbug, and determined on 8000 lbs. The charge was tamped with twenty-five feet
of sand bags.” — Lyman's Journal.
SOURCE: George R. Agassiz, Editor, Meade’s
Headquarters, 1863-1865: Letters of Colonel Theodore Lyman from the Wilderness
to Appomattox, p. 195-6
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