twentyninth Grant brought every available man into proper support
of Burnside, whose other three divisions were to form the
immediate support of Ledlie's grand forlorn hope.

In the early morning of the thirtieth the mine blew up with an
earthquaking shock; the enemy round it ran helterskelter to the
rear; a crater like that of a volcano was formed; and a hundred
and sixty pieces of artillery opened a furious fire on every
square inch near it. Ledlie's division rushed forward and
occupied the crater. But there the whole maneuver stopped short;
for everything hinged on Ledlie's movements; and Ledlie was
hiding, well out of danger, instead of "carrying on." After a
pause Confederate reinforcements came up and drove the leaderless
division back. "The effort," said Grant, "was a stupendous
failure"; and it cost him nearly four thousand men, mostly
captured.

August was a sad month for the loyal North. It was then, as we
have seen, that Lincoln had to warn Grant about the way in which
his orders were being falsified in Washington. It was then that
Sherman asked for reinforcements, so as to be up to strength
before and after the taking of Atlanta. And it was then that
Halleck warned Grant to be ready to send some of his best men
north if there should be serious resistance to the draft. Nor was
this all. Thurlow Weed, the great election agent, told Lincoln
that the Government would be defeated; which meant, of course,
that the compromised and compromising Peace Party would probably
be at the helm in time to wreck the Union. With so many of the
best men dead or at the front the whole tone of political society
had been considerably lowered--to the corresponding advantage of