Omaha daily bee., 1881-08-25
VIRGINIA BATTLE-FlElDS.
Standing With Malone on
the Walls of the
Crater"
Dropping Rebel Shells Into a
Pit of Dying Soldiers.
How the Rebel Line was Broken
and Petersburg was Left
Untaken.

lul SCeic anu ~ ISIitDlS udy was tlhht
Crater fight" said General Malone
as he stood looking at a large painting
on his parlor wall, land that is the
best representation of a battle that j
ever saw. 1t shows you the terrible
hand-to-hand struggle which went on
that fearful July morning in 6 4,when
6,0Q0 Union troops and no telling how
many Confederates were slain between
daylight and noon. By the way,
have you ever been out therel The
scene Of this fight is but a short drive
from here. Nor
"The horses at G., john" and then
again to the writer, cit will be pleas
ant driving at that time, and it will
quite repay you to see the old crater
or such parts of it as are left stand
ing
1t was the cool of a delightful sum-
mer evening. The roads were free
from dust and the rain which had
fallen the night before had given the
grass and shrubhery a brighter hue,
as we whirled by them, behind two
dashing blacks, driven by the Vir-
ginia senator's liveried coachman.
''The final battles of Lees army and
the last and most stubborn resistance
which they made, and which proving
futile resulted in the fall of Richmond
and the surrender at Appomattcx, was
around this city, you remember" said
the General, "and of them the fight
at the crater was the most terrific.
For ten months the two great armies
of Lee and Grant lay intrenched be-
fore this town. The entire country is
a battle-ground. Petersburg, Five
Forks and Appomattox are all within
a comparatively short distance of each
other, and all are rich in historic lore.
The first assault upon the defensive
works which surrounded Petersburg,
was made on the evening of the 10th
of June. The Second corps, the adj
vance of the army of the Potomac,
had crossed the James river two nights
before, and at midnight of the 10Th,
a pontoon bridge had been construct
ed, and the Ninth, Fifth and
Sixth soon followed. The last corps
that landed was pushed forward to
Petersburg, and ON the night of the
10Th our line had been broken and
held. The fighting continued for
three nights, and the Union forces at
times reached and mounted our very
parapets, and were only repulsed after
a desperate struggle and a heavy loss.
After this the two great armies re-
NAMED quiet, recuperating their
strength. During the latter part of
June and the whole of July the armies
were engaged in rectifying and
Strengthening their respective lines.
The Union lines then extended from
Appomattox to City Point, and in
order to meet them the Confederate
lines were naturally very thin. Earth
works were thrown up and much time
was consumed in this work. These
lines at some points were not over
two hundred yards apart, while the
picket lines in front were not over
that many feet from each other. The
sharpshooters of each side kept up a
continual firing, and a fellow who
placed his hat OH a ramrod and
pushed it above the earthwork was
sure to find a bullet through it when
it came down. A fellow lying stretch
ed out along the limb of a tree, con-
cealed by the foliage, would wait hour
after hour, through rain and shine,
for the pleasure of picking off his
man across the way. While the men
were engaged in this amusement a
very important work was going on,
however. The federals had among
tfem a regiment under command of
Lieutenant Colonel Peasants, the
t~orty-eighth Pennsylvania. l think
it vas composed largely of coal miners
who, under the direction of a skillful
engineer, executed the idea of mining
and blowing up a battery of the enc
my. The work was certainly well ex-
-ecuted. The gallery was begun at
noon on the Goth of June. The uten-
:sils were of the rudest kind, but
many hands oon made great progress.
The gallery was well timbered and
perfect in every respect. The main
gallery was completed on July II, and
was BIOS feet in length. General
Lee had obtained information of the
mine and set his men to work on a
counter-mine to find it. They did
not strike deep enough and went
above the federals, who could hear
the confederates above them. We
could not hear the federals though.
Hearing the confederates above them
the federals excavated a little beyond
but in the rear of their works, thus
giving their gallery a curved direction.
A left and right lateral gallery were
then made, and eight magazines were
placed in position. The order to
charge the mine was given on the 9th
OF July. and the work was done be-
tween 4 and 10 p. In. on that day."
slow much powder was placed in
it?" NA2
"Well, you see the federals desired
not only to blow up the fort abo"e
them and thus break our lines, but
they hoped to create a terrible amount
of confusion, during which they could
push through and carry the heights
beyond. They, therefore, filed the
place with 800 kegs of powder, each
containing 20 pounds, or 5000 pounds
in all. The tamping was finished by
the evening of the 28th, at daybreak;
o. the 3sth of July, 1864, it was
fired. The federal troops had been
drawn up in battle, and the explo-
sion was to be the signal to charge
The hour fixed for the signal came,
but the signal came not. 1t would
not do to wait long. The fuse had
been lit, but twenty minutes had
passed and there was no explosion. II
might have gone out, yet at any in
slant it might explode. 1t would
take an hour 10 tell certainly what was
the matter. BY that time the sun
would be up and il would he too late.
The armies would be astlr. There
was but one thing TO do. Would any
man v~oluntear Ia enter the GALLERY A