Louisiana capitolian. (Baton Rouge, La.) 1879-1881, 1881-05-24

During the battles in the trenches
before Petersburg ! was serving in the
Army of Northern Virginia as a private
in Pegram's Private Battery. About
the Goth Of July portion of our COM
mand, numbering thirty-four officers
and men, moved into the fort, then
being threatened by Grants mine, car
rying with them three guns. The lines
in this neighborhood were in iil-repute
with our soldiers. They approached
very near to each other at some places
the picket firing was incessant and
artillery duels were frequent, think
| it was Immediately after our arrival at
the fort that rumors began to circulate
among US regarding the mine that was
to be carried under the work and at the
proper time "blow US TO the moon" On
the 18th Of July no signs OF the lmpend-
ing catastrophe were visible to rs IN the
trenches. There was no change in the
daily routine. Casualties occurred In
our vicinity aud the victims were car
red past, some Of them silent, others
with staring eyes exposed and utterlng
piteWs complaints. The dropping fire
from the pickets vas continuous, and
when darkness came we could trace the
course of the bombs that all down the
line were being exchanged between the
hostile batteries Midnight had inst
been proclaimed by the city clock, when.
accompanied by Sergeant Peter Royal,
! retired. The ammunition bomb proof
for our gun had two chests, and on them
we stretched orr wearied limbs. The
sleep that followed was the sleep ofutter
exhaustion, for the stagnant air and
sitting heat Of the trenches was not
favorable to natural repose. On the
following morning at daybreak the ser
geant turned out with the others to
replace the fascines in the embrasuTes, as
was the daily custom, leaving me asleep,
and after a brief absence returned to
finish his nap Oh the chest. At the same
time the remainder of the gun squad,
eleven or twelve in number, returned to
the shelter of a tarpaulp, which they
had stretched outside the bomb-proOf
/ Lieutenants Hamlin and Chandler, with
the rest of the command, about twenty
men in all, having performed the duty
| have mentioned likewise returned in
side the fort.
A heavy shock awoke the. In a sec
oad realized that the mine had been
exploded, that the bomb-proot was
nearly filled with earth, that we were in
utter darkness, that. in short, we were
buried. Listening intently ! heard the
sound Of Gannonading, seemingly afar
off. There was another sound, which
to this day ! cannot recall without a
shudder; the groans OF my poor com
rades under the tarpaulin, as they were
being slowly sutfocated by the mass of
dirt precipitated upon them by the en-
plosion put forth my hand the sar-
| geant was still beside me on the chest.
We raised our voices in repeated shouts
but the sound was dull and muthed and
seemed to come back upon us from the
walls of our prison house.
In tho black solitude of that bomb
proof we regarded death'sapproach with
no feeling save that of dull despair.
About three tours had elapsed, as | now
calculate, when an idea occurred to me
which, by the blessing of heaven, re-
suited in our escape. In my haversack
was an iron spoon of a size rather larger
than common. Was it not possible tt