The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-10-24
VOL. XTV--NO.s15
A TERRIBLE STORY.
How Two Confederate Soldiers weFo
Buried Alive.

| t0TTetpondsnc6 Jacksonville Afd.) Republican,
In your issue Of the 18th instant, I
notice an article, the first sentence Of
which asks :"Can a PERSONS hair turn
white within short timer 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 3cth Of July, 1864, the point
immediately over 1t was occupied by
Virginia battery. The bitches on the
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. III. Wallace,
(now Judge Wallace, of South Carolina
of which regiment was surgeon. All
along our lines our soldiers had dug out
small omb-proofs, as they CT led 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
paratve comfort and safety, which they
did when off duty, during that never-to-
e-forgotten siege by every nan 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 frat
they realized of it was the shock, then q
deep darkness, end 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 despairMheart.
sickening, heart-rending, hopelessness,
that left them almost powerless for
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 but canteen of water i'm
the cell. But what was going on about
themi Grant had consumniated that
most diabolcal of all the deeds If q ter
rlble war. ! was within 1s0 yards of it
on my morning visit to my regiment, and
1t was just at that time OF day-twiiight
that even trees can look like ghosts,
anu ihnt Hddc;; to the weird scene of
DEATH
Simultaneous with the deep, dead
sound, and the quiver of the earth, there
arose in the air q cloud of dust and
smoke, and timbers, men and muskc.s.
and all manner of shapes and fragments,
were fiyiag in every direction, and then
Tor moment n stiffness, and it seemed
as II every cannon on the whole Federal
line was turned loose upon our lines.
Shells shrieked through the air-musket
balls and fragments of shells iell in every
, direction, blowing up the earth and cut
u1g on limbs from the few trees that the
re,en'tfss sma tss hand Of war had spared Then
With splendidly caparisoued troons Of the
Federal army behind, driving them. as il
were,. to the front, like sheep to the
slaughter, with the battle cry of "Re.
! member Fort Pillow" and ths few-the
: very few-that survived no doubt remem-
Der the crater of Grant full us we'll.
High above all 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 common grave with nearly
every soldier who manned it. But the
Confederate lines were broken in twain.
federais and negroes had made breast
! WORKS OF the bouiders that were blown
M by the explosion. Bat they were not
10 stay there. Soon came Gen. Malone,
with reinforcements, and, after one of the
most gallant fights OF all tho war, lie
carried the works, end The crater turned
70 grave for its captors. 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 biph
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, ond many brave soldier. MY reg
lment had lost one hundred and sixty
three men. Two whole companies.
and u, Eighteenth South Carolina. had
not man left, who was on duty. to tan
the tale. One hundred and one of INV
men, including Captains Mccormick and
Birdgis, were dead-tnried in the crater
or scattered along the works-and sixty
two missing.
Among the missing were Lieutenant
Hill and Sergeant Greer We left them
in their almost living grave; Greer dir
gng with his bayonet, while Hill passed
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 up in 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 if he could
only let his wife know how and where
he died, that death would be relief 70
him Almost oil iiii5oatedi If foi want d
air, they worked on. 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 sntiocution and de-
spair, to light aud hope, fninted. How
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 of tne battle as is raced
around and above. Almost In stunor.
JiSs &c realize tiii.t tiuy csJii;Sa nm.
see the light Of heaven and hear the
voice Of living creature, they Law still
until they recovered their minds enoiigh
TO know what was going ON. fiill bas
often told me that when he knew and
realized that sf moe q l,oA.,1 :. I,,s-' !,