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Civil War re-enactments scheduled for later this month at Yin-glingfarm near Gettysburg, Pa., include the 1861 battle of First Bull Run Manassas, Va., the 1863 battle of Emmittsburg Road Peach Orchard, Pa., the 1864 battle of Cold Harbor, Va., and the 1864-1865 siege of Petersburg, Va. The Petersburg portrayal to be presented at 1:30 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 26 is of special interest to Marylanders because Sgt. John E. Buffington of Taneytown won the Medal of Honor at Petersburg at the end of the long siege there and becasue black soldiers from Maryland fought in one of the most famous battles of the siege. Petersburg was known as "the graveyard of the Confederacy" during the Civil War. A year after its siege, shattered bayonets and rifles sprinkled the former haven of the trenches. Pieces of bloodstained uniforms were still sown In the ground by spent bullets. .Some of these grim reminders were provided by members of Union Maj. Gen. Ambrose E. Burn-side's Negro 4th Division, which saw its first combat at the Battle of the Crater. Soldiers from Maryland The men of this division which included the 36th Regiment, recruited in part in Howard and Frederick counties enlisted to gain their freedom. Until the fighting at Petersburg, they had served behind the lines, guarding supply depots and railroads. What Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant called the best opportunity for carrying fortifications also became the saddest affair he had witnessed during the war. The 10-month siege at Petersburg, which began in mid-June 1864 and continued until April 2, 1865, was the longest military campaign ever waged in the. United States, and the Battle of the Crater is the best-known episode from it. The key to the Confederate capital's, last railroad links to the South, Petersburg was an essential target for Grant. As the Union army dug in against the ring of entrenchments circling Petersburg, a soldier of the 48th Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteer Infantry observed, "We could blow-that damned fort out of existence if we could run a mine shaft under it." This comment spurred a month of digging toward the Confederate line at Elliott's Salient. Under the direction of Lt. Col. Henry Pleasants, men of the 48th Pennsylvania began digging the 586-foot tunnel about noon June 25, .1864. These men excelled at their task since most were former coal miners. The tunnel was about 5 feet high 4'2 feet wide at the bottom and 2 feet wide at the top; it was 30 feet underground. Soldiers toiling in the mine used discarded ale bottles for candle holders. Prob V'v--i vard A . Petersburg r T- Jerusalem " . 3 Plank Rd.X :f lems with ventilation forced Pleasants to make use of a vertical shaft, a fire and wooden pipes for drawing fresh air into the steamy tunnel. Confederate soldiers joked that Grant was running an underground railroad through Petersburg. On July 28, 8,000 pounds of powder in eight wooden boxes were planted inside the earthen tomb. Burnside wanted the 4th Division to head the attack because of its high morale. Indeed, they were excited "to show the white troops what the colored division could do," according to Maj. Gen. Henry Goddard Thomas, who was a colonel and commander of the colored division's 2nd Brigade at the time of the attack on the Crater. But Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, vetoed Burnside's decision on July 29 because he feared a backlash would erupt from sacrificing Negro soldiers first. Grant later explained in testimony before the Committee on the Conduct of the War, "It would then be said that we were shoving these people ahead to get killed because we did not care anything about them. But that could not be said if we put white troops in front." Chris Calkins, a Petersburg Park historian, believes that Grant's decision was influenced by the Fort Pillow massacre in Tennessee. Black soldiers were murdered after they surrendered, and Union officers didn't want a repeat, he said. Drawing straws The commander in charge of the Crater attack, Brig. Gen. James H. Ledlie, was chosen by drawing straws and had less than admirable experience. It also didn't help matters that he was an alcoholic. The fuse was ignited at 3:15 a.m. July 30. When no sound was heard through the muggy dark, one brave soldier entered the mine to check the fuse. It had blown out. Lt. Jacob Douty and Sgt. Harry Reese relighted it, and the waiting for the explosion resumed. The sun was just rising over Petersburg at 4:44 a.m. when the ground exploded under Elliott's Salient. Tattered legs, rubble and bloody uniform patches rained over the land. When the ashy smoke cleared, there was a crater 170 feet long, 60 feet wide and 30 feet deep, a shape that Maj. Gen. William Mahone, commander of Confederate forces in the vicinity of the Crater, compared with a goose egg cut in two. That morning, 278 Confederate soldiers were buried ' by the explosion, but the battle had only begun. The Union soldiers were almost ,1 -T' -17; LIBRARY OF CONGRESS JENNIFER IMES : SUN STAFF as stunned by the fiery spectacle as the Confederates and stopped advancing to pull out buried rebel soldiers. Within minutes, Confederate troops recovered and rallied against the attack. Meanwhile, Ledlie was hiding behind the lines and drinking rum he had begged from the surgeon. As gunfire burst overhead, he barked rash orders to repeatedly charge. Instead of skirting the rim of the crater, Union troops advanced into it, became trapped and were sitting ducks for Confederate marksmen. Moreover, the Confederates wielded a small, iron mortar, a weapon not normally used in battle, to lob shells into the center of the pit. Maj. Gen. Robert B. Potter, alone of Burnside's division commanders who was present with his men during the assault, took over for the drunken Ledlie and ordered the Negro 4th Division to attack; they were greeted by Confederates furious at seeing black men in uniform, who broke their charge and slaughtered those who attempted to surrender. From then on, the small tract in Petersburg became a vision of hell. Wounded men were baked in the fierce sun. Union soldiers burned to death by the fire from their own batteries. Once the lines north and south of the crater's rim were reestablished, a white flag was raised. The Battle of the Crater was over. The Union reported a loss of 4,000 men, while Confederate casualties were 1,500. Though some historians argue that the Crater extended the campaign for Petersburg eight months, Petersburg historian Calkins doesn't believe this "holds any water." "Lee's army would have held out anyway," he explained. "One battle is not enough to end the war." On Aug. 1, four hours were reserved for removing the wounded and dead from the land, but skeletal remains would still be discovered years later. The site of the battle, a farm owned by William H. Griffith before it was destroyed by the siege, was the setting for a re-enactment on Nov. 3, 1903. At a slower pace, 430 survivors of Mahone's brigade went through their actions in the battle. , Thirty-four years later on April 30, 1937, Virginia Military Institute cadets, Marines and National Guardsmen made up the approximately 3,000 troops who participated in another re-enactment. Nearly 50,000 spectators observed off the field, four of whom were Confederate veterans of the original battle. The crater itself, now overgrown with waves of grass, still remains.

James H Ledlie