Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1882-01-12
SIXTEEN YEARS AFTER.

and as the roads fork | look for sirnS of
the crater. There are the signs. Away
10 the left and high in the ar are the
buzzards sailing in slow circles. | found
them at Sharpsburg. at Winchester, at
Malvern Hill. ut Cedar Crcck-I saw
them lowering over a score Of different
battleiields. That was the first thing |
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 tlutterng over the iivll where
the corpses had lain thickest At Cedar
Creek could have killed them rs they
sat on the breaStworkS and uttered their
horrible notes. At Charlottesville |
drove one OFF the stone erected to the
memory OF )newall jackson, and over
III the field where blackened chimney,
rotting cannon wheels and hillocks of
earth mark the spot where IIookef
massed his guns, half a hundred of the
croaking birds disputed the ground with
me.
THE CRATER-
And SO, turning 10 the left, | ride
down footh-path running between ~
cotton and peanut field and find my
self 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 u hill. You look
down into IN irregular hollow ahundred
and fifty feet long. by from twenty to
forty broad, and that hollow will live
forever in our war history rs 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 larry
can place everything rs it was ON that
morning of July 30, 1864. when it was Il
hole twenty-five feet deep and full of
dead aud wounded Federals,
TIE MINE.
The mine can be traced from the era
ter 10 the spot where the Federal, turn
ed the first sod. The long gallery is
marked by caying in of the earth, and
the shaft has filed up and caved in UNI
til one would not know What it was
Right at this point, and what first sug-
gested the idea of the mine. the lines
are so close together that one can stand
1T the crater and hurl peach-stone into
the thicket where the Federal pickes
were stationed. Al no other point on
the lines around Petersburg were FEEDER
al and Confederate able to look in each
others eyes. Ii is hardly twenty steps
across the cotton-iicld TO the edge of the
thicket, and here for months not hand
could be shown that "a dozen bullets did
not whiz for it. When there was no fir
ing, the Confederates in the fort and the
Federal pickets in the thicket could con-
verse in ordinary tones Of voice.
When Grant swung around he pushed
on until Lee checked him, and then
stopped right here 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 Confeder-
ates held the same thicket, creek and
railroad track.
TIE ORIGINATOR.
1t is said that the idea of tunneling
under the six-gun Confederate fort at
this point originated with Pennsyl
vania miner who was serving in one of
the regiments IN Burnside's corps. A
lieutenant in New York regiment is
also mentioned, and had the mine been
n success probably dozen men would
have stepped forward to claim the hon
or. No matter who carried the idea to
Burnside, he grasped at it. War means
horrible wounds and sickening sights
and death in dozen terrible forms, but
in Il war between civilized nations men
DO not look upon such weapons as mines
with much favor. A direct attack upon
this siv-gun fort would have resulted in
repulSe. If it could be blown out of the
way there would be II gap in the Con
federatc lines through which whole
hrigadcs could pour One brigade
through that gap and Lees lines were
gone
THE WORK.
The work was done b. old coal miners
working in regular gangs, and the shaft
was sunk about 800 feet from the fort,
and went down twenty feet before the
gallery branched off The gallery was
wide enough for two men to work |
abreast, and over four feet high. One |
ii the greatest troubles was in survey
hg the route, and even when the gal
lery was under the fort no one felt ex-l
| actly sure within six or eight iect. A
little science, and great deal Of guess
Ing, however. struck the right spot. and
galleries were then dug to the right and
left for distance of thirty feet
UNsusPECTING VICTIMS.
The Confederates within the fort were
totally unsuspil ious Of what was going |
ON beneath them. Once, when one Of |
the wing galleries was being excayated,
soldier Who was living on the ground |
suddenly called out that he could hear
the sounds Of digging, but those to
whom he appealed said that it must be
rats burrowing their way in to get in a,
the provisions. Again. negro whoI