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1158 Series I Volume XLII-II Serial 88 - Richmond-Fort Fisher Part II

Page 1158 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter LIV.


SPECIAL ORDERS,
HDQRS. DEPT. OF N. C. AND SOUTH. VA.,

Numbers 62.
August 2, 1864.

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IV. Colquitt's brigade will rejoin Hoke's division, and Gracie's brigade will report back to Major-General Johnson.

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By command of General Beauregard:

JNumbers M. OTEY,

Assistant Adjutant-General.


HEADQUARTERS ENGINEER TROOPS,
August 2, 1864,

Colonel T. M. R. TALCOTT,

Commanding First Regiment Engineer Troops:

COLONEL: I submit to you the following report on the condition and character of our mining operations on General Beauregard's lines:

At Pegram's salient the mine Numbers 2 sustained no injury from the explosion on the 30th; Mine Numbers 1 being nearer the mine of the enemy its entrance was closed up and destroyed. We have sunk shafts on the edge of the Crater at three points for the purpose of discovering the entrance to the galleries of the enemy. Lieutenant E. N. Wise, in charge at his point, reports favorable signs as indicating the near approach to one of their galleries. The work on two of these shafts has been discontinued, the force being concentrated at one shaft (the one that offers the most favorable signs of the presence of the enemy's mine). At Gracie's mine I have to report as the result of our operations that on the 1st of August we charged two mines, each with 225 pounds powder, contained in four barrels. The explosion failed from the inferior quality of the safetyfusse used (being the best furnished by the Ordnance Department). Last night I ordered a detachment to commence work at this mine, in removing the tamping and charge from the mines. The day detachment continued the work. The powder has been removed and placed in the magazine, and it is expected that by night the two galleries at this mine will bes cleared out, the mud and water removed, and it will be in order for the extension of gallery Numbers 2, the one we have been at work on up to July 31, when we suspended work in consequence of the supposed near approach of the enemy's mine. At this mine the main gallery was extended twenty-five feet from the shaft, and from this another gallery (a common gallery two feet nine inches by four feet six inches) was continued an additional distance of twenty feet in the same direction and toward the enemy's sap-roller to our left. A point in the main gallery twenty feet and a half from the shaft, another main or principal gallery (full size, three feet two inches by six feet) was driven a distance of seventeen feet. This gallery is now prepared to extend toward the front, branching off at an angle of 45 toward the second sap-roller of the enemy's (the one to our right and opposite the large oak tree at the right end of our picket-line). To-night the sand-bags and other material remaining in this mine, and which have been removed to the entrance of the mine, will bes taken out, the sand wasted, and the bags returned to headquarters.

At Colquitt's salient the main gallery has been extended fifty-eight feet and a quarter, a branch of the main gallery to the right of twelve feet six inches; thence a change of direction at right angles to the left


Page 1158 OPERATIONS IN SE. VA. AND N. C. Chapter LIV.