Letter, August 2, 1864, T. W. Brevard, "In front of Petersburg," to "My Dear Mother" (Page 3 of 4)

Page Three

recaptured our works or rather our line—the works being destroyed with a large number of provisions. The slaughter of the enemy was very great. Our Brigade was not engaged in this affair. I visited the scene of the explosion and fight, however, shortly afterwards, and the sight was ghastly enough to have satisfied Abe Lincoln himself. The dead covered the ground more thickly than I have ever seen them else where; the victims of the explosion particularly were mutilated and disfigured beyond description, and the whole spectacle was at once grotesque and horrible.