advancing any more troops.
Meade, exploding in anger when
informed of the bottleneck at the Crater,
summarily ordered Burnside to have all
Union troops push forward to the crest of
Cemetery Hill, regardless of their current
dispositions. Willcox tried hard to comply,
ordering the 27th Michigan straight into
the teeth of Wise’s Virginians, who halted
the advance in minutes. Meanwhile, Will-
cox’s second brigade, under Colonel
William Humphrey, moved up, only to find
its front partially blocked by Hartranft’s
stalled column. Under fire and eager toadvance, Humphrey sent his entire com-
mand surging across the abatis-strewn
field, where they crashed into the Confed-
erate works, capturing prisoners and reliev-
ing, for a while, the pressure on the south
flank of the Crater. Humphrey’s success
was fleeting, however; the Virginians ral-
lied, and South Carolinians firing at the
Crater turned their attention to the new
threat. Humphrey’s left flank quickly crum-
bled and three Michigan regiments found
themselves isolated within the Confederate
lines, taking fire from three directions.
Burnside’s ambitious plan to seize
Petersburg and bring a quick end to the
war was disintegrating in a jumble of
Union command failures and unexpect-
edly stiff Confederate resistance. Meade
continued to insist that all Union units rise
up en masse and take Cemetery Hill.
Burnside opted to take the word of his
commanders on the scene, who informed
him that there was literally no more roomfor added units to deploy and that any
reinforcements would be a waste of man-
power. Nevertheless, sometime after 7 AM,
Meade ordered Burnside to commit his
fourth and last division, Ferrero’s USCT
troops. As his units advanced into the
teeth of enemy fire, Ferrero clambered
into Ledlie’s bomb shelter, where he hud-
dled, sharing a bottle of rum with Ledlie,
for the remainder of the battle.
The USCT advance was blocked by a
steady flow of returning wounded, pan-
icked comrades, and Confederate prison-
ers coming from the front. After Lt. Col.
Joshua Sigfried ordered his brigade for-
ward, the black troops stolidly negotiated
the obstacles leading to the front only to
come under galling fire all along their col-
umn. Parts of the two leading regiments
forced their way through the congested
mass inside the Crater. while others skirted
the abyss north of it, all disappearing into
the honeycomb of enemy trenches andABOVE: Mounds of earth smolder in the middle
distance as Union soldiers march into battle in
this sketch made three hours after the explo-
sion. On the left is Brig. Gen. Frank Bartlett’s
Massachusetts brigade; on the right are USCT
troops. The inner line of Confederate works is
visible on the high ground 500 yards in the dis-
tance. OPPOSITE: Union gunners aim a cannon
at Confederate lines in support of the infantry
attack at the Crater.Q-Spr16 The Crater_Layout 1 1/14/16 12:42 PM Page 29