PETERSBURGH: Great and Active Operations; Springing the Mine Under the Rebel Works (8/1/1864)

New York Times - Times Machine ^ | 8/1/1864

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

WASHINGTON, Sunday, July 31.

Dispatches from the TIMES' special army correspondent, herewith transmitted, bring before the imagination the opening of a grand battle drama, which began with early dawn of Saturday. Unlike customary skirmishing, with which the first sallies of battle begin, the combat of Saturday opens midst explosion of mines and the rude clamor of a hundred pieces of artillery. Unhappily the curtain drops with the first act of the drama, and the rest, whether of glory or disaster, is silence. We shall have to wait yet a few hours ere we know the results of the contest.

Never before during the Virginia campaign has the military situation inspired at once such interest and such solicitude. For six weeks the army has remained in apparent deadlock in front of the lines of Petersburgh. The passage of the James had exhausted the category of possible flanking movements with Richmond as an objective. A movement to the left, though presenting the high strategic advantage of planting the army on the enemy's lines of railroad communication, seemed to expose too much our own communications to be adventured. A movement to the right, so long as the enemy's position at Bermuda Hundred was unassailable, would only carry the army once more to the northern side of the James.

For a season it seemed to be Gen. GRANT'S indention to force the enemy by cavalry raids to an abandonment of his strong position. Hence followed the operations of WILSON and KAUTZ, which, though vigorously and successfully executed, and which, no doubt, occasioned a severe temporary strain on the rebel Commissariat and Quarter-master's Departments, did not prove adequate to the desired end. In this state of facts, there seemingly remained, therefore, only to essay once more,

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Free Republic University, Department of History presents U.S. History, 1861-1865: Seminar and Discussion Forum
The American Civil War, as seen through news reports of the time and later historical accounts

First session: November 21, 2015. Last date to add: May 2025.
Reading: Self-assigned. Recommendations made and welcomed.

Posting history, in reverse order

https://www.freerepublic.com/tag/by:homerjsimpson/index?tab=articles

To add this class to or drop it from your schedule notify Admissions and Records (Attn: Homer_J_Simpson) by reply or freepmail.

Link to previous New York Times thread

https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/4255283/posts

[Homer_J_Simpson]

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[Homer_J_Simpson]

Petersburgh: Great and Active Operations – 2-4
Campaign in Georgia: Desperate Battle Five Miles From Atlanta– 4-8
The Rebel Raid: Atrocities of the Invaders – 8-9
The Tupello Victories: Desperate Fighting on the 13th, 4th and 15th of July – 9-10
From the Mississippi: A Rebel Battery at Carrolton Landing – 10
News from Washington – 10
Editorial: Before Petersburgh – 10
The Maryland Sympathizers – 10
Editorial: No More Back-Door Diplomacy – 10-11
Editorial: The Scope of the New Invasion – 11-12
The Petersburgh Mine – 12
Obituary: Aaron D. Patchen – 12

[higgmeister]

I hope you have an OCR reader instead of having to transcribe this manually. &nsbp; I appreciate your noble cause professor.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

It’s just a whole bunch of screen shots from the Times Machine (12 per newspaper page) cut up and reassembled in scannable and readable form.

Thanks for reading.

[higgmeister]

I know they are scanned photostats but I was talking about the short pieces of the texts that you include in the Body of Thread at the start of the post.   The USAF taught me how to type on a teleprinter but I still find it tedious to type text properly on a qwerty keyboard.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

That is a cut and paste from the archived article at NY Times, with some html formatting added. Usually just paragraph separators. I have to cut it off at 300 words to comply with NYT and FR rules. Very little transcribing necessary.

[higgmeister]

Great. As I said, thanks for the far reaching project.

Our house is a thousand feet up a hill from Sope Creek, just above the 100 year flood plane.   No doubt both Armies were all around here.   We have got the historical markers all over the place to prove it.

In 1959 my Dad bought 93 acres along the Etowah river with a falling down Plantation home with all of the outbuildings for $19,000.00.   We learned later on, the old railroad bed that ran parallel with the river was part of the original The Great Locomotive Chase.

While the "The Texas" chased the "The General" that was stolen by the Union raiders in Marietta, the conductor of The General who had been left in Marietta attempted to catch them before they got to Kingston, GA.   He had commandeered "The Yonah" at Etowah, GA and went on the tracks across our land a hundred years earlier.

When we lived there the rails and ties had been removed but the raised bed was very prominent and even had a perpendicular raised bed for a station where they loaded the train cars.

I have lived in Marietta for 43 years and have been to the Kennesaw House Hotel building where the Andrews raiders stayed before commandeering The General.   It is now the Marietta History Center and Welcome center.