CITY POINT, VA., August 1, 1864.
The loss in the disaster of Saturday last foots up about
3,500, of whom 450 men were killed and 2,000 wounded. It was the saddest affair
I have witnessed in the war. Such opportunity for carrying fortifications I
have never seen and do not expect again to have. The enemy with a line of works
five miles long had been reduced by our previous movements to the north side of
James River to a force of only three divisions. This line was undermined and blown
up, carrying a battery and most of a regiment with it. The enemy were taken
completely by surprise and did not recover from it for more than an hour. The
crater and several hundred yards of the enemy's line to the right and left of
it and a short detached line in front of the crater were occupied by our troops
without opposition. Immediately in front of this and not 150 yards off, with
clear ground intervening, was the crest of the ridge leading into town, and
which, if carried, the enemy would have made no resistance, but would have
continued a flight already commenced. It was three hours from the time our
troops first occupied their works before the enemy took possession of this
crest. I am constrained to believe that had instructions been promptly obeyed
that Petersburg would have been carried with all the artillery and a large
number of prisoners without a loss of 300 men. It was in getting back to our
lines that the loss was sustained. The enemy attempted to charge and retake the
line captured from them and were repulsed with heavy loss by our artillery;
their loss in killed must be greater than ours, whilst our loss in wounded and
captured is four times that of the enemy.
U.S. GRANT,
Lieutenant-General.
Major-General HALLECK,
Washington, D. C.
_______________
See Addenda.
SOURCE: The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of
the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies, Series I, Volume
40, Part 1 (Serial No. 80), p. 17-8
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