Alfred Roman, The military operations of General Beauregard in the war between the states, 1861 to 1865

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Nearly the whole of the 18th and a small portion of left wing of 22d were in the most of the explosion.

As soon as I gained the trench there was a rush of the men of the 18th down the trench against my regiment (17th); and numbers of my own men, panicstricken, and just aroused from their sleep, scratched at the counterscarp like frightened cats. This was momentary. Jumping on the banquette, I discovered the Yanks pouring into the mine, and very little firing on their line. In less than five minutes time our men recovered from their panic, the men of the 18th falling in indiscriminately with mine, and we shot with great rapidity and execution. About the same time the battery on the left of the ravine, a short distance in rear of Ransom's brigade, did great execution, and fired about six hundred shots in a short time. This battery I observed specially; the others, in rear and on right, also did good execution.

In ten or fifteen minutes after the explosion General Elliott came along, with Colonel Smith, who commanded the 26th Regiment, and ordered me to take my regiment and follow him on the brow of the hill and form a line, and charge the enemy out of the mine. Smith had a few of his men cramped up in the ditch following him. I waited a few moments until Smith and some of his men were out of the way, and extended the order along my line. Saw Elliott, Smith, and about half a dozen men get out of the ditch on the brow of the hill. General E. was shot immediately after he got up. The ditch being crowded, it was a slow process to get out.

As soon as Elliott was shot he was borne past me, and spoke to me to do the best I could. His aids reported to me immediately, and rendered good service during the day.

As soon as I took command I countermanded the order given by General Elliott. It struck me as rashness to endeavor to make men get out of the ditches and attempt to form a line under fire on the top of the hill, at fifty or seventyfive yards from the crater, exposed from head to heels to the fire from the crater and the enemy's line, which was eighty yards from the crater. It was simply an impossibility. I observed at this time the crater full of men, and at least fourteen regimental flags. I counted either fourteen or sixteen flags, and I was in a rock's throw of them.

My apprehension was the men in the crater would rush down the hill and get in the rear of my line in the ravine which General Mahone afterwards came up in. I ordered Colonel Smith, of the 26th, to take all his men he could gather and immediately to go down the ditch to General E.'s quarters, to go up this ravine and lie down, and if the Yankees endeavored to rush down to resist them. As Smith's regiment was quite small I detached three of my largest companies, under Captain Crawford, to co-operate with Smith. It gave me the greatest anxiety until Smith's command got in position. As I believed the fate of Petersburg depended on filling up this gap, I spread the remainder of the 17th and the part of the 18th that remained along the line until it struck Ransom's brigade, and fought the enemy from behind the traverses as well as I could. We threw up barricades across the trench at various places. Many of the enemy jumped over the back part of the crater, got into the rear ditch,