Greetings, Mr. Bryant.

I have spent the last few days reading and skimming through multiple accounts of the Battle of the Crater, from newspapers in the North, the South, and from other countries. I have plenty of time to indulge in this, thanks to being in home hospice and with the aid of morphine, my new found friend.

I finally found an account that stated the lead regiment of the "Negro" troops at the said battle. While this isn't Gospel, but then again, all that we work on, including the OR, is not Gospel, we all have to pick and choose, and come to our own conclusions of things.

The London Times of 17 Aug 1864 on page 22 (Bottom of Column 3) states that the 39th Maryland Regiment led the "Negro" charge into the Crater. Before them, the 35th Regiment, which was the Division Engineers, went in. What's interesting to me is Edward Wild, the one armed fellow that Mr. Bryant found, was at least at one time, associated with some of these same troops and his whereabouts at the time of the battle under discussion is vague in the Wikipedia article.

There's obviously much more work to be done here, but perhaps this article will help lead us to a conclusion. I will continue to skim articles and hope to find another tiny gem of knowledge to add to the pot.

Regards to all,
Hoyt

https://www.newspapers.com/image/33028161/