. The photographic history of the Civil War : in ten volumes . his own men. General ^Nleade and GeneralGrant sanctioned the project, and plans were adopted for anassaidt on the entire Confederate line when the mine shouldexplode. The majority of the men em2)loyed in the work wereminers fiom the coal regions of Pennsylvania, and the neces-sary expedients were familiar to them, without special instruc-tions from the engineers. The excavation was conmiencedwithout sj^ecial tools, lumber, or any of the materials usuallyrequired for such work. By late afternoon, on July 23d, theexcavations were dee
. The photographic history of the Civil War : in ten volumes . his own men. General ^Nleade and GeneralGrant sanctioned the project, and plans were adopted for anassaidt on the entire Confederate line when the mine shouldexplode. The majority of the men em2)loyed in the work wereminers fiom the coal regions of Pennsylvania, and the neces-sary expedients were familiar to them, without special instruc-tions from the engineers. The excavation was conmiencedwithout sj^ecial tools, lumber, or any of the materials usuallyrequired for such work. By late afternoon, on July 23d, theexcavations were deemed complete. Eighteen thousand cubicfeet of earth had been removed. The mine was charged on the afternoon and evening of the27th, with three hundred and twenty kegs of powder, each con-taining about twenty-five pounds. Altogether, there were eightmagazines connected by wooden tubes which were half filledwith jJOMcler. These tubes met at the inner end of the main gal-lery, and fuses were laid along this gallery to the exit. As 2401 CELEBRATING ANANNIVERSARY. ENGINEERS ONJILY i, 1864 Thus the officers of tlie Fiftiotli New York Engineers celebrated the victories of Gettysbnrg ami \ieksl)Tirg in front of Petersburg July4, 1864. At the head of tlie table sits Lieutenant-Colonel Ira Spaulding. On his right is Charles Francis Adams, later a leading Ameri-can historian. Often in front of Petersburg just a few more shovelfuls of earth meant the saving of lives. The veterans in the lowerphotograph are bearded anti bronzed; the muscles beneath their shabby blue tunics were developed by heavy, constant manual operations in this campaign marked a development in field-fortifications, opened \irtually a new era in warfare. The siege wasnot a bombardment of impregnable fortifications. It was a constant series of assaults and picket-firing on lines of entrenchments inthe open. By July, 1864, the earthworks to the east had been almost finished, although much of this exacting labor ha
Size: 1712px × 1460px
Photo credit: © Reading Room 2020 / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookidphotographichist05inmill
