Company D. Wounded: Private Emmons M. Parkhurst, arm. Company E. Died of wounds: Private Ira Thompson, wounded in the thigh, and died of the wound July 31st. Wounded: Sergeant Christopher A. Curtis, body; Private Edwin M. Mitchell, shoulder. Company F. Wounded: Sergeants Leonard F. Alexander, leg, slight; Charles J. Fox, leg; Privates James F. Bellows, leg; Patrick Fluddy, hand; Owen Hammell, hand; Edward Mountain, leg; Henry C. Wester, hand. Company G. Killed: Private Patrick Fay. Wounded: First Sergeant Lorenzo H. Gilbert, thigh. First Sergeant Gilbert had been in command of Company G since the crossing of the Rapidan. Sick, and in constantly failing health, he had repeatedly refused to go to the hospital. His wound was long supposed to be mortal, but by good nurs ing, aided by his indomitable courage, he was at last restored to his home in Ashburnham, though crippled for life. Company H. Wounded: Private Frederick S. Fairbanks, hand, slight. Company I. Wounded: Sergeant Charles L. Burton, neck; Privates Charles L. Atwood, face; Xavier Jordan, foot. Prisoner: Private William H. Tyler. Company K. Wounded: Corporals Charles A. Smith, leg; Thomas Winn, arm (and prisoner); Private Michael Flynn, shoulder. A general assault was ordered to be made at four o'clock on the morning of the 18th, but when the skirmish line moved up to the rebel works which had been carried and lost the day before, it was found that they were abandoned by the enemy, who had now withdrawn entirely from his original line of intrenchments, and occupied a carefully selected line about a mile nearer the city, which was the line that he held throughout the long siege of Petersburg. This change in the state of affairs required new dispositions to be made of the troops, and the general assault was deferred until afternoon. When made, although it was repulsed at every point with heavy loss, it left our troops in the immediate vicinity of the rebel works, and (from the Appomattox River to the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad) on substantially the same line that they held to the end of the siege. The result of this attack convinced General Grant that it was in vain to hope to carry Petersburg by assault, and that it was necessary to reduce it by the slow process of a siege. The Union troops were therefore at once. set to work in the erection of a systematic line of intrenchments, facing those of the enemy, and varying from one hundred and fifty to five hundred yards in distance from the main rebel line. The loss suffered by the Union army in the assaults upon the rebel lines in front of Petersburg from the 15th to the 18th of June, numbered, by the official reports, 10,590 men, of whom 1,298 were killed, 7,474 wounded, and 1,814 missing. The rebel loss is not known. CHAPTER XVIII. JUNE 19-JULY 30, 1864. THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG. - JUNE 19, 1864. General Grant's beleaguering armies in front of Petersburg and Richmond now extended from Deep Bottom, on the north side of the James River, about twelve miles below Richmond, across Bermuda Hundred, and from the Appomattox River to the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad; in all, a front of about ten miles. The Army of the James was under the immediate command of General B. F. Butler, and held the north bank of the James and Bermuda Hundred; the Army of the Potomac, under General Meade, held the rest of the Union line, more immediately in front of Petersburg. Although Petersburg is twenty-two miles south of Richmond, its occupation was regarded by General Lee as absolutely essential to the safety of the western and southern communications of the rebel capital. On the 16th of June, the Army of the James had advanced from Bermuda Hundred and occupied a position on the railroad between Richmond and Petersburg, but on the 17th were driven back to the works covering Bermuda Hundred. In a few days after the commencement of the siege of Petersburg, both the Union and rebel fronts were covered with fortifications so formidable that they could be held by comparatively few troops, and both commanders were able to cut loose powerful columns for operations elsewhere, -General Grant's active operations being principally directed against the Wel don, Southside, and Danville railroads, on which the rebel Army of Northern Virginia depended for its supplies. The 4th Division of the 9th Corps (colored), under General Ferrero, which so far had been kept with the wagon trains, reported for duty with the corps about the 20th of June, and were anything but a welcome addition to the front on which they were posted. In front of the other corps, as a rule, there was no picket firing, and the hostile picket lines, frequently but a few yards apart, exposed themselves with impunity; but the rebels would never allow the negroes, or the troops immediately associated with them, to rest in peace, and on the front held by the 9th Corps there was a constant, distressing, deadly, dropping fire of musketry and artillery kept up, by which, first and last, a great many men were killed and wounded. Up to the end of July, the 21st, with the 9th Corps, were kept in position holding the line in front of Cemetery Hill; and their wearisome duty was alternated with three days in the advanced line and three days in the second line; but, as the second line was only two hundred yards from the rebel works, there was no great difference between the two positions in point of danger from the enemy's fire; but on the second line the men were able to get some shade, while in the front line they were compelled to hug the parched and dusty ground, and were scorched and withered by the blazing sun. In both lines, woe to the poor fellow who did not remember to keep low. On the 20th of June the 21st mustered one hundred and ten muskets for duty. Fourteen men were lost by the 21st in killed and wounded, during this distressing period (from June 18th to July 29th), as follows: June 23d. Corporal George H. Hardy, of Company D, wounded in the body. June 27th. Sergeant Leonard F. Alexander, of Company F, shot in the head and killed. June 28th. Private John Somerville, of Company B, wounded in the leg. July 1st. Private Joseph G. Hart, of Company H, wounded in the head. July 3d. 1st Lieutenant Jonas R. Davis, wounded in the hand. July 5th. Sergeant (and Acting Sergeant-Major) Sidney S. Heywood, of Company A, wounded in the abdomen. July 10th. Private Charles H. Morse, of Company F, wounded in the thigh. July 14th. Private Waldo Vinton, of Company H, wounded in the side. July 15th. Private De Witt C. Ray, of Company A, shot in the head and killed. July 20th. 1st Lieutenant George H. Bean, wounded in the foot. July 23d. Sergeant Edwin T. Brown, of Company C, struck in thigh by a piece of shell and killed. July 24th. Private Lyman F. Thurston, of Company G, wounded in the leg. July 27th. Private L. J. N. Hurie, of Company C, wounded in the head. July 29th. Corporal James M. Stone, of Company K, wounded in the thigh. On the morning of June 19th, Private Newton Wellman, of Company E, was found dead, having died during the night, probably from heart disease. The next engagement in which the 21st took part was the sad and discouraging battle of the Mine, on the 30th of July; but, before proceeding to that, it will be well to state what the rest of the army had been doing since June 18th. During this time nothing of great importance had been done by the rest of the army in front of Petersburg, although the Union lines had been extended to across the Jerusalem Plank Road, about a mile to the left of the Norfolk and Petersburg Railroad, and two divisions of cavalry had raided upon the rebel communications, temporarily destroying several miles of the Weldon and Southside railroads. Meanwhile General Lee, secure in his strong intrenchments in front of Petersburg, had made a startling movement upon Washington by a detached army of four brigades of cavalry |