The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1878-12-04
Terrible Story.

ATerrlble Story.
In your issue of the 18th inst, no.
tlced an article, the first sentence OF which
asks the question:, "Can persons hair
turn white in short time?" Having seen
such an instance, and one that can be
authenticated beyond all cavil by persons
now living, / will give you ana your
readers the circumstances as they occurred,
when, where, and whom they are.
When Grant sprang the ''mlne" or
'bluw-up," as many call it, in front of
Petersburg, Va. at twilight on the morn
of the 30th Of July, 1854, the point i'm
mediately over it was occupied by Vir-
ginia battery. The bitches on tile right
Immediately next to the battery were
occupied by the Twenty. second South
Carolina volunteers, Col. Fleming. On
the left OF the battery the bitches were
occupied by the Eighteenth South Caro-
lima, Colonel w. II. Wallace (now Judge
Wallace, Of South Carolina), of which |
regiment was surgeon. All along our
lines oul soldiers had dug out bomb
proofs, as they called them. These boom
proofs were generally about four teet
broad, three feet high. and seven feet long
large enough for two or three men to
crawl into and sleep with comparative
comfort and safety, which they did when
off duty, during the never-to-be- forgotten
siege, by every mar who participated
her elm.
! IN one Of the bomb proofs on the ex-
IRENE right of the Eighteenth South Car
DINA Volunteers, and just to the left Of
the mine, Lieutenant Willard Hill, Com
pany E, and Sergeant Greer, Company A,
having been relieved from duty an
hour before, we're sleeping. The first
they realized of it was the shock, then a
deep darkness, and then consciousness
that the mine had been sprung, and that
they had been buried, how deep they
could not imagine. Their first impulse
was deep, indescribable despair--heart-
rending hoplessness, that left them al
most power.ess for time. But what
could they do? They had nothing to dig
I out with but a bayonet that Sergeant
Greer had in his belt. and there was but
canteen ct water in the cell. I was
: within $50 yards of 1t on my morning
visit to my regiment, and it was just the
time of day-twilight-that even trees
look like ghosts, and that added to the
! weird scene of death. simultaneously
with the deep, dea sound, and quivering
! of the earth, there arose in the air a
l cloud of dust and smoke, and timbers,
; men, and muskets, and all manner of
3 shapes, fragments were flying in every
t direction-and then for moment still
ness--and it seemed it every cannon on
+ | ~ Ill
D upon our lines. Shells shrieked through
!: the air, musket balls and fragments Of
I shells in every direction, blowing up the
q earth and cutting off limbs from the few
S trees that the relentless hand of war had
t spared. Then came the charge.
"a High above all the confusion and
:. smoke and dust and groans Of the wound
8 ed, could be heard the battle cry of the
Federal, and the words of encouragement
g of gallant officers the few that are left
't of the Eighteenth and Twenty
o South Carolina Volunteers, and those
! brave Virginians whose battery was bur
e ried in a common grave, with nearly
every soldier who manned it. But tht
g. Confederate lines we're broken il
Is twain. The Federals had made breast
- works of the powders that were blowl
up by the explosion. But they were no
to stay there. Soon came Gener
Malone with reinforcements; and, afte
a. one Of the most terrific fights Of all tn
es war,sh carried the works, and the crater
~ turned to grave for its captors. / ha.
r. heard of pools of blood-it was there
~ saw them. Then silence reigned. thu
t. painful silence which always follows O.
| tho 1,o<k Eol6 of hos ol hi0
k. carnival.
he Then came the SAD duty of counting u
at the cost. My brigade had suffere
al severely-the Twenty second South Care
,e- lima had lost Colonel Fleming and man
e. soldier. My regiment had lost Is
n men. Two whole companies, A and
sh Eighteenth South Carolina, had not
re man left, who was on duty,t tell the tall
st. One hundred and one of my men, incluo
ell ing Captains Mccormick and Birdgi
st. were dead buried in the crater or scatte
10 ed alongt ne works and sixty two mis-
ste ing.
OF Among the missing are Lieutenal
les Hill and Sergeant Greer. We left the
e." in their almost living grave; Greer dl|
. ging with his bayonet while Hill passe
OF back the dirt, with all the desperation
of despair. They hear not, they heed nc
rm the battle that is raging above them, b
lily toll on. Often hope would spring up
me their hearts to give way only to despal
by Hill has often told me how, when
in awcke to consciousness of his conditio
lis, in the thoughts that flashed throue
,ed his brain like tightening how he thong
in that if he could only see one ray of lig
Of or breathe the fresh air once again, th
all if he only could let his wife know he
nus and where he died, that death would be
cen relief to him. Almost sutfocated for t
can want Of fresh air, they worked on; at Il
in it seemed to them that something b
OPP crushed them, they had dug through I
!, to loose boulders, and the light burst up
red them. They both, overcome with I