PERSONAL NARRATIVES OF EVENTS IN THE War of the Rebellion , BEING PAPERS READ BEFORE THE RHODE ISLAND SOLDIERS AND SAILORS HISTORICAL SOCIETY. Fifth Series.—No. 8. PROVIDENCE: PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 1898. SNOW & FARNHAM, PRINTERS. BATTLE OF THE CRATER AND Experiences of Prison Life . BY SUMNER U. SHEARMAN, [Late Captain, Fourth Rhode Island Volunteers.] PROVIDENCE: PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 1898. [Edition limited to two hundred and fifty copies.]...

I have been asked by the Society under whose auspices we are gathered to-night to tell you something of my personal experiences in the Battle of the Mine, or of the Crater, as it is sometimes called, and to supplement those experiences with some account of my life in a Southern prison. At the time of the battle I was captain of Company A, Fourth Rhode Island Volunteers Infantry. The regiment to which I belonged was a portion of the Ninth Army Corps, under the command of General Burnside. The bat