The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-24
A TERRIBLE STORY.
How Two Confederate Soldiers were
Buried Alive.

notice an article, the first sentence OF
which asks: "Can a persons hair turn
white within short time?" Having
seen such an instance, and one that can
be authenticated beyond all cavil by per-
sons now living, will give you and your
readers the circumstances as they oc-
Cured, when, where and whom they are.
When Grant sprang the "mine," or
"blow-up," as many call it, in front of
Petersburg, Va, at twilight on the morn
ing of the 3Oth of July, 1864, the point
Immediately over it was occupied by a
Virginia battery. The bitches on the
right, Immediately next to the battery,
were occupied by the Twenty-Second
South Carolina Volunteers, Col. Flem-
ing. On the left Of the battery the
bitches were occupied by the Eighteenth
South Carolina, Colonel w. II. Wallace,
(now Judge Wallace, of South Carolina,
of which regiment 1 was surgeon. All
along our lines our soldiers had dug out
small bomb-proofs, as they called them.
These bomb-proofs were generally about
four feet broad, three feet high, and seven
feet long-large enough for two or three
men to crawl into and sleep with COM
parative comfort and safety, which they
did when off duty, during that never-to-
be-forgotten siege by every man who
participated therein.
In one of the bomb-proofs on the ex-
treme right of the Eighteenth South
Carolina Volunteers, and just to the left
Of the mine, Lieutenant Willard Hill,
Company E, and Sergeant Greer, Compa-
ny A, Eighteenth South Carolina Vol
teers, having been relieved from duty an
hour before, were sleeping. The first
they realized of it was the shock, then a
deep darkness, and then a consciousness
that the mine had been sprung, and that
they had been buried, how deep they
could not imagine. Their first impulse
was deep, indeacribable despair-heart-
sickening, heart-rending, hopelessness,
that left them almost powerless for a
time. But what could they do? They
had nothing to dig out with but bayo-
net that Sergeant Greer had in his belt,
and there was bu. canteen of water in
the cell. But what was going on about
them? Grant had consummated that
most diabolical Of all the deeds of ter
rible war. l was within $50 yards of it
on my morning visit to my regiment, and
it was just at that time of day-twilight
that even trees can look like ghosts,
and that added to the weird scene of
death.
Simultaneous with the deep, dead
sound, and the quiver of the earth, there
arose in the air a cloud of dust and
smoke, and timbers, men and muskets,
and all manner of shapes and fragments,
were flying in every direction, and then
for moment stiffness, and it seemed
rs if every cannon on the Whole Federal
line was turned loose upon our lines.
Shells shrieked through the air-musket
balls and fragments of shells fell in every
direction, plowing up the earth and cut
ting off limbs from the few trees that the
relentless hand of war had spared. Then
came the charge. Negro troops in front
with splcndidly caparisoned troops of the
Federal army behind, driving them, as it
were, to the front, like sheep to the
slaughter, with the battle cry of Gre
member Fort Pillow" and the few-the
very few-that survived no doubt remem-
ber the crater of Grant full rs we'll.
High above ali the confusion and smoke
and dust and groans of the wounded,
could be heard the battle-cry of the Fed
erals, and the words of encouragement
of gallant officers-the few that are left
of the Eighteenth and Twenty-Second
South Carolina Volunteers, and those
brave Virginians whose battery was
buried in a common grave with nearly
every soldier who manned it. But the
Confederate lines were broken in twain.
Federals and negroes had made breast
works of the boulders that were blown
up by the explosion. But they were not
to stay there. Soon came Gen. Malone,
with reinforcements, and, after one of the
most gallant fights of all the war, he
carried the works, and the crater turned
to grave for its captors. l had heard
of pools of blood--it was there that /
saw them. Then silence reigned-that
painful silence which always follows on
the battlefield after death has held high
carnival.
Then came the sad duty of counting
up the cost. My brigade had suffered
severely-the Twenty.Second South Car
olina had lost its gallant Colonel, Flem-
ing, and many brave soldier. Ny reg
iment had lost one hundred and sixty
three men. Two whole companies, A
and G, Eighteenth South Carolina, had
not man left, who was on duty, to tell
the tale. One hundred and one of my
men, including Captains Mccormick and
Birdgis, were dead-buried in the crater
or scattered along the worls-and sixty
two missing.
Among the missing were Lieutenant
Hill and Sergeant Greer. We left them
in their almost living grave; Gre Greer dig;
back the dirt with all the desperation Of
despair. They hear not, heed not the
battle that is raging above them. but toll
on. Often hope would spring pin their
hearts to give way only to despair. Hill
has often told me how, when he awoke
to consciousness of his condition, the
thought flashed through his brain like
lightning; how he thought if he could
only see one ray of light, or breathe the
fresh air once again, that il he could
only let his wife know how and where
he died, that death would be relief to
him. Almost sniiocated for want of fresh
air, they worked OH. At last it seemed
to them that something had crushed
them; they had dug through the loose
boulders, and the light burst upon them.
Then both, overcome with the sudden
transition from their sulincation and de-
spair, to light and hope, tainted. Eow
long they remained there they know not
When they awoke from their swoon,
the first sound that broke on their ears
was the clash of arms, and the quick
rolling roar " the battle as it ragged
around and above. Almost in stupor
trying to realize that they could again
see the light Of heaven and hear the
voice of living creature, they lay still
until they recovered their minds enough
to know what was going on. Hill has
often told me that when he knew and
realized that it was battle, the sound
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