Omaha daily bee., 1881-08-25

curve in the gallery, and there he
found that it had gone out. He relit
it at that point and then fled for his
life. He had scarcely reached the en-
trance when the earth shookas though
its very depths had been stirred. The
fort which had been undermined was
at the time g%arrisoned by Pegram's
battery from Petersburg, and con-
sisted of four guns and forty men. II
overlooked a slight %ravine, and behind
it was a level field running to the base
of Cemetery hill, which the federals
had hoped to carry. The fort was
blown to atoms, while a deep
hole, many yards in length, and
shaped like an egg, the sides of
which had been thrown up by the ex.
p%losion, was filled with dying men and
horses, all envcloped in the gray
smoke which poured out of the crew
ices of earth in all directions When
l arrived on the field. which was soon
after, my command consisting of three
brigades, the Federal troops had com
mand of the remnant of the fortifica-
ton, while the road to Petersburg was
unguarded. Why they did not pour
through sooner and carry the town is
one of the things / never could com
prehend, for they could have done it
as easily as not. My men formed in
line at once with fixed bayonets, and
feeling hat this was our last days
work on earth, we charged. The Fed
erals charged at the same time over
the high wall and down upon us like
butchers. They fired, and the volley
went over our heads. Ours was more
effective, and they we're stunned. 1t
was then a hand-to-hand conflict, the
most terrible l ever saw; but we drove
them back behind the smoking walls
of the crater, among the dead and
dying already there"
A private soldier in General Ma
homes brigade, who was wounded that
day, but is now the clerk of the Jar
rett house, in Petersburg, says that
this was the most terrible fighting he
saw in the war.
81 had no more idea when 1 was
ordered out that morning hat l would
live until now, than l have now of
dropping dead. l saw that the Union
men had command of the 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 like madmen. We thought
u time had surely come. / remem-
Der their battle.cry, Fort Pillow,
and no quarter" and | determined to
act on the same principle. 1t was the
most satisfactory fighting l ever did.
You see when we used to shoot our
guns we never knew much whether we
had killed anybody or not and the
chances were in favor of the latter. l
only fired my gun once in that fight,
but when / knocked a man down with
the butt of my gun, and pinioned him
to tho ground with a bayonet, l knew
he was dead. l made it a principle
to make no niger prisoner. l killed
every one | met until / was shot down
and carried off the field. We fought
like demons, and we were demons.
1t was every man for himself hat
day, and l hope / will never live to
sec another like it,"
Finally Mahone's brigade drove the
Union forces back into the crater.
General Malone says the ground
about him was so thick with the slain
that it was impossible to keep his
horses feet off of them. The rebels
who were killed in the explosion were
of course terribly mangled and many
were fastened in the earth only to be
trampled down by the soldiers after
wards. The crater was now a mass of
dead and dying. One poor fellow
after another would crawl up the bank
only to be shot down, and final y,
when the rebels could do no more,
they tossed bombshells into the crater,
causing untold agony
There were hundreds of dead taken
out of the terrible hole afterwards
and many still lie buried there. There
is a little shanty near by filled with
relics of the battle. Shoes that were
found on the field, with the bones of
the feet still in them, guns which had
been shot to pieces, and n with
three bullets buried in its stock and
barrel. l picked up a canteen within
the crater walls, with nothing left but
the rim and it's shattered edges, show
ing that a shell had gone clear through
it and the wearer too no doubt. The
crater is covered with a growth of
peach trees, which have grown up
since the war, and probably had their
growth from the seeds which the SOL
diers had thrown away there during
the long siege.
As a result of that days fighting the
union forces had made a slight ad-
vance but had lost 5000 men, and
gained but little real advantage.
''Those were the dark days of the
country" said General Malone at
supper that evening, and standing on
he walls of the crater it is not easy to
feel that seventeen years have passed
around since that terrible tragedy was
enacted. w. S. l..