The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1882-01-21
(From the Detroit Free Press
THE PIT OF DEATH.
BY III. QUAD.

Up the hill, past the blrying grounds,
and as the roads fork | look for signs of
the crater. There are the sigus. Away
to the left and high in the air are the
buzzards sailing in slow circles. found
them at Sharpsburg, at Winchester, at
Malvern Hill, at Cedar Creek-I saw
them lowering over score of different
battle-helds. That was the first think
looked for as [ rode along the dusty
highway towards the fighting grounds.
When the buzzards could be seen there
was no need to ask further information.
At Malvern Hill there were hundred Of
them huttering over the field where the
corpses had lain thickest. At Cedar
Greek could have killed them as they sat
on the breastworks and uttered their
horrible notes. At Charlottesville |
drove one off the stone erected to the
memory of Stonewall jackson, and over
III the field where a blackened chimney,
rotting cannon wheels and hillocks OF
earth mark the spot where Hooker
massed his guns, half a hundred of the
croaking birds disputed the ground with
me.
And so, turning to the left, I ride
down a foot-path running between a cot
ton and peanut field, and find myself at
length in front of a hill covered with
pine and peach trees. This hill is the
crater. When once you have climbed
its side it Is no longer hill. You look
down into an irregular hollow a hundred
and fifty feet long by from twenty to
forty broad, and that hollow Will live
forever in our war history as the crater
Weeds, grass and the young peach and
pine trees hide much of the horror of the
spot, but one who has time to tarry can
place everything as 1t was on that morn
ing Of July 80, 1864, when it was hole
twenty-five feet deep and full Of dead
and wounded federals
The mine can be traced from the crater
to the spot where the federaIs turned the
first sod. The long gallery is marked by
a caving in of the earth, and the shaft
has caved In and filled up until one
would not know what it was. Right al
this point, and what first suggested the
idea of the mine, the lines are SO close
together that one can stand at the Crater
and hurl peach stone into the thicket
where the federal pickets were stationed.
At no other point on the lines around
Petersburg were federal and confederate
able to look into each others eyes. 1t is
hardly twenty steps across the cotton
field to the edge of the thicket, and here
for months not a hand could be shown
that dozen bullets did not whiz for it.
When there was no firing, the confeder-
crates In the fort and the federal pickets
in the thicket could converse in ordinary
tones of voice.
When Grant swung around he pushed
on until Lee checked him, and then
stopped right there and began intrench-
ing. This made very irregular line.
At the crater the federals held the
thicket along the creek, the railroad be,
hind it and the forest still further back
Hardly eighty rods above, the confed
crates held the same thicket, creek anC
railroad track.
1t is said that the idea of tunnelIng
under the six-gun confederate fort at thi:
point originated with a Pennsylvania
miner who was serving in one of the
regiments in Burnside's corps. A lieu
tenant IN a New York infantry regiment
is also mentioned, aud had the mine beer
n success probably a dozen men would
have stepped forward to claim the honor
No matter who carried the idea to Burn
SIDE, he gTdSpcU III IT, w az LIZ AANA
rible wounds and sickenlng sights an'
death in dozen terrible forms, but IN
war between civilized nations men d'
not look upon such weapons as mine
with much favor. A direct attack upol
this six-gun fort would have resulted Il
repulse. If it could be blown out o
the way there would be agap IN the con
federate lines through which whole
brigades could pour. One brigade
through that gap and Lees lines wer
gone.
The work was done by old coal miner
working in regular gangs. ana the shat
was SINK about 500 feet before the gal
1erv branched off. This gallery was Wild
enough for two men to work abreast, @n'
over fourf high. One OF the creates
troubles was IN surveying the route ans
striking the proper distance, and eVel
when the gallery was under the tort u
one felt exactly sure within SIX or elgh
feet A little science and great deal Q
a1lessing. however, struck the right spot
and galleries were then dug to the righ
and left for a distance of thirty feet.
The confederates within the fort Wer
totally unsuspicious of what was goln
on beneath them. Once, when one Q
the wing galleries was being excavateo
soldier who was lying on the groun