and back and were forced to retreat within their own lines under a murderous fire. The Ninth Corps bore the brunt of the battle on the right, and were on the point of securing a decided advantage, when General Burnside received orders to cease all offensive operations.

MAP OF THE BATTLE-FIELD OF COLD HARBOR.

At midnight on the 6th, and again on the 7th, the Confederates made a severe attack upon the Ninth Corps, but on each occasion they were bravely and promptly repulsed.

On the night of the 12th of June, 1864, a flank movement was begun, and the celebrated change of base effected, which placed the Army of the Potomac on the south side of the James, in front of Petersburg. No campaign of the war had been so severe on human endurance and courage as this forty days' campaign under LieutenantGeneral Grant. The Ninth Corps, which during this time, had lost in killed, wounded, and missing over seven thousand nine hundred men, had done all that had been required of it promptly and gallantly.

Whether General Grant could have placed his army on the south side of the James River without the vast expen

diture of human life which marked this campaign, is a question which future historians, removed from the personal feelings of the present, will be called upon to decide. If General Lee exhibited great capacity for defense, it was demonstrated during this five weeks' campaign that he had met with more than his match in the tenacity and the persistency with which General Grant pushed on his aggressive operations.

General Lee was greatly aided (as has been well remarked by the Rev. Mr. Woodbury) by the peculiar formation of the portion of Virginia which was the scene of these military operations. There were rivers crossing the lines of march almost at right angles; forests of vast extent, which afforded concealment for the movements of an army on its defense or retreating; marshes which could be used for the protection of positions selected for a stand; hills, each one of which could speedily be made to become a fort; and all these strengthened by all the appliances of engineering skill which had leisurely constructed defensive works in view of just this contingency, or had hastily thrown them up as the emergency demanded. But all his skill, his ability, his resources, the advantages of his chosen positions, the very favorable opportunities which the natural features of the country supplied were of little avail except to postpone defeat for a season. In the end they were compelled to give way before the indomitable. will, the resistless and steady advance, the undaunted spirit, the matchless persistence and energy of Lieutenant-General Grant and his army.

The advance was slow, and it has been well said that every mile was marked with brave men's blood, yet the Army of the Potomac moved onward and the Confederate forces retreated. Positions which could not be successfully

carried by assault without a vast expenditure of human life, were turned by skillful flank movements, which were equivalent to battles won. In all these operations the Ninth Corps participated so gallantly as to reflect the highest honor upon all its officers and men, and especially upon its hopeful general and his division commanders. When it was said that the Ninth Corps, during those forty days of marching and fighting, complied with every demand upon human endurance and human courage, performing all that was required of it, and suffering commensurately, the highest praise was awarded both to the living and to the dead.

General Burnside, always ready to waive his rank, permitted the incorporation of the Ninth Corps into the Army of the Potomac, which made him subordinate to General Meade. Well might General Harrison, a Senator of the United States, afterwards say that jealousy, that bane of military life, never found harbor in Burnside's heart.

"There was no room in that well-lighted breast for this black angel. As a subordinate, he never failed to yield a quick and loyal obedience to his superior; nor ever sought to justify his own judgment in the council by a hesitating support of the plan of battle which his superior had chosen. He was a true soldier one who had not only a master but a cause, into the fellowship of which he received all who made that cause common. He might join in the high rivalry of those who would give most to this sacred cause, or win most honor to the flag; but if he might not be first to plant the flag on the enemy's battlements, he would at least be found among those who hailed with cheers both the flag and the victor."

THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG THE MINE BENEATH THE ENEMY'S WORKS - PLAN OF ATTACK -THE COLORED TROOPS COUNTED OUT -THE ASSAULT- DELAY IN THE EXPLOSION-A TERRIBLE SCENE GENERAL MEADE PETULANT - RETREAT OF THE NINTH CORPS AFTER HARD FIGHTING - RELIEVED FROM DUTY.

IEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT, having become convinced that he could not capture Richmond by a flank movement, determined to besiege the enemy, who was securely entrenched before Petersburg and Richmond. His headquarters was established at City Point, with the Army of the James keeping his lines north of the James River, and the Army of the Potomac those on the south bank. Frequent assaults were made, both from the right and left. The lines were gradually extended, and although General Lee made several desperate attempts to release himself, he soon found that to move out of his entrenchments at any point was certain destruction, while to stay and be besieged was equally as certain, though the process was slower and longer.

The Ninth Corps was in front of Petersburg, and from day to day, for six weeks, by the aid of the shovel and the pick, General Burnside's lines were insidiously advanced

by zig-zags and covered ways, until the outline pickets of both armies had scarcely five hundred yards between them. The sharp-shooters on either side were especially vigilant, and skir

mishing and artillery fire were almost incessant. It was only necessary for General Burnside to occupy Cemetery Hill, to place his guns in a position where they would command an easy range of the old town of Petersburg. The crest of this hill, frowning with guns, was not more than eight hundred yards distant from the ad

vance works of the Ninth Corps, and its gently sloping sides were welted with long rows of earth-works, pitted with redoubts and redans, and ridged with serried salients and curtains, and all the works of defense known to the educated military engineers.

The vital importance to the Union Army of Cemetery Hill was evident to all, and many schemes were advanced by which it might be made useless for the enemy's purpose, or made to change hands altogether; but to take it by direct assault must necessarily cost many lives, and the attempt might not be a success. It was then that Lieut.-Col. Henry Pleasants of the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, which was in General Potter's division of the Ninth