The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1881-09-08

forh6cation, while the road to Petersburg
was unguarded. Why they did not pour
tnroughssooner d d1carryS the town is one
Of the things never could comprehend
for they could have done it as easily as me-
MY men formed in q line at once with fixed
Daytonets, and feeling that this was our last
Gays work on earth, we charged. The
f.ederals charged at the same time over the
aagA wall and down upon us like butchers.
they fired, aud the volley went over our
heads. Ours was more effective, and they
were stunned. It was then q hand-to-hand
Conflict, the most terrible 1 ever saw: but
We drove them sack behind the smoking
walls Of the crater, among the dead and
dying already there
"a private soldier in General Mahone's
brigade, who was wounded that day, but is
now the clerk Of the Jarrett House in
fettersburg, says that this was the most
terrible fighting he saw in the war.
- had no more idea when Twas ordered
out That morning that I would live until
noW than l have now Of dropping dead. I
saw tnat the Union men had command Of
Inc place where the old fort had been, and
!! was only surprised that they had not
taken the town. They came down over the
crater wall ike madmen. We thought our
time had surely come. ], remember the
battle-cry: Fort Pillow, and no quarter
and l determined to act on the same prin-
clple. 1t was the mast satisfactory fighting T
ever did. You see when we used to shoot
our guns we never knew much whether we
mad ni1 Killed anybody or not, and the chances
We're IN Y of the latter. I only fred nv
gun once In that fight, but when I knocked
q man down with the butt Of nv eun and
Plnloned him to the ground with q bayonet
!! knew ne was dead. I made it q principle
to take no niger prisoner. I killed every
l met until I was shot down and car
RED OF the field. We fought like demons.
n we were lemons. It wa every mar
Tor himself that day, and I hope I will
never live to see another like it."
FINALLY Mahone's brigade drove the Union
forces pack into the crater. Gen. Malone
says the ground about him was so thick
Win the slain that it was impossible for
nm 4 TO Keep his horses feet off of them.
Inc rebels who were killed in the explo-
sion were, Of course, terribly mangled and
many were fastened in the earth onlvto he
trampled Gown by the soldiers afterward.
The crater was now a mass of dead and do.
ing. One poor fellow after anther would
crawl up the bank only to be shot down.
and finally, when the rebels could do no
more, they tossed bombshells into the GRAFT
or causing untold agony.
There were hundreds of dead taken out
OF the terrible hole afterward and many
still lie buried there. There lis q little
shanty near by filed with relics Of the bat
tie: Shoes that were found on the field
bones of the feet still in them. guns
which had been shot to pieces, and one with
three bullets buried in its stock and barrel.
picked up a canteen within the crater
walls with nothing left but the rim and its
edges, showing that a she'll had
gone clear through it and the wearer, too, !
no doubt. The crater is covered with "a (
growth of peach trees which have grown
since the war, and probably had their
growth from the seeds which the soldiers
thrown away there during the long
siege. As q, result Of that days lighting the
Union forces had made a slight advance
had lost 6 5000 men and gained but little
real advantage.
Those we're tie dark days Of the coun-
;ry. said .&eneral Malone at supper that
evening, and standing on the wall of the
crater it is not. easy to feel that seventeen
years have passed around since thatterrible
was enacted.