Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1885-12-13
The Explosion Of the Famous Mine IN
Front Of Petersburg
in 1864.
A story Of Terrible Carnage Which Nc
Language Can Adequately
Describe.
A ycritnbIe slaughter Pen--The Confed
crate Recnpture-Curious Relies
OF the right.
cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

To aid the Imagination OF tne Nlsllof
Whore the land Is worth the trouble tn,
earthworks, II there were any, have beer
leveled and there is nothing to mark thu
spots where great events TRANSFERRED A
Manassas the plain, fenced ana cultivated
has nothing TO show where the treInend
Gus battles were fought or particular
deeds were done. A visit to the battle
fields about Manassas is not particularly
interesting, except 10 those who partlei
mated i'm those struggles. In the
southwest this Is different from the fact
TINT upon nearly all the great battle.
fields about fredericksburg, Richmond
and Petersburg the earthworks remain
untouched save by the hand OF time.
Just as they were fought over, just as
they were stained with blood and heaped
with dead and dying and plowed with
shot and shell Just as they stood when
the war ended, they stand to-day. The
rain has beaten them down somewhat,
tha grass has in many places grown over
them, aud the leaves accumulated in
bitches aud hollows. Pine trees as thick
AS a mans thigh have grown upon them,
and the scrub-pines and blackjack and
chiuquepin make a thick underbrush. But
in many places they stand uncovered, the
bare, silent, grim, old red earthworks of
the war. These give guide to the Inn
aginatiOn and assist the recollection and
witty the memories OF those terrible
events
Al Spottsylvania you may stand upon
the deadly angle where for thrty-siI
hours In blood, and smoke, and agony
in tunult as II among lighting ilends of
hell the conlendlng armies were clinched
like wild beasts in Il death struggle that
knew no mercy, gave no quarter and
asked for none. AT Cold Harbor you may
20 into the federal butcher-pen OF 1864.
You may stand In the works where the
federal troops lay clutching their rifles Mt
break OF day upon that dreadful morning.
You may spring over these low parapets
as they did in the dark and murky dawn
ing, and, before, you see thesslope, down
and then up, over which they swept in
that fatal charge, Before you stand the
old works they charged, frowning, inn
pregnable, and between you and them Is
the space wherein fell 10, 600 of the flow
or OF the Northern army in charge as
hopeless as was that at Balnklava.
All around Richmond the old fortinca-
tons and lines of works may be traced,
Sometimes they disappear In plowed and
culth atcd fields to reappear beyond.
Some OF the forts, indeed many of them,
are nearly perfect, and day or two would
put them In as good trim as ever.
Down below, at Drury's Bluff and Fort
Darling, the works in many places need
nothing but the ax to put them In shape
for occupation.
AROUND PETERSBURG.
The most interesting of all are the
works about Petersburg, the historic
city, and the center of interest Is the old
"crater," as IL is called, the scene of the
explosion OF federal mine July 80, 1864,
and the dreadful scenes following.
spent day riding along the old lines
at Petersburg from Fort McGilvery past
Fort Stedman, Fort Haskell, Fort Morton,
Fort Meikle, Fort Rice down to Jerusa-
lem plank road and Fort Davis and Fort
Sedgwick, better known as Fort "Iell,n
Further ON toward Hatcher's Run the
forts are in better state OF preservation,
some of them indeed, like Fort Fisher and
Fort Davis, being almost unchanged in
appearance since being abandoned, ex-
cept for growth OF brush and small tim
Der. The Confederate works, including
Fort Malone (Fort Damnation), have
largely disappeared in peanut and sweet
potatoe fields. Fort Malone, viii oh faced
Fort Sedgwick on the Jerusalem plank
road, has disappeared and left no trace,
but It's grim opponent still stands in
majestic ruin, impressively suggestive OF
the vast and massive character OF the
eaTthwork.
Fort "lell' was an immense work.
and remains now In hugh tumult, deep
meats, great ridges that look as though
turned by a gigantic plowshare, weed and
brush covering bastions and salients,
high mounds where the magazines stood,
and deep ruts marking the old covered
ways The country is perfectly fiat, and,
1900 feetiacross the plain punches OF
peanut stacks mark the site OF Fort Ma
hone. Every inch of this country has
been fought over back and forth scores OF
times, and for ten months the cannon
doomed aud the musketry roared and
death rode ON the winds in this place OF
dreadful recollections.
Fort Morton, which faced the salient
blown up by the mine, has been .eveled
and some OF the breastworks connecting
IL with the forts north and south OF Il.
Fort Stedman Is q pretty well preserved
ruin, both II and the site of Fort Morton
being but a few rods from dwelling
houses.
The way up which the Confederates
NHHN NuSh NhN4 HNuiihNu uhN NuHlultu
Fort Sedgwick Is PLAN to view, and the
natural difficulties presented give one a
better idea OF the gallantry of that dash
that caught our boys mapping and took
them in.
OVERLOOKING THE CRATER.
The crater itself has never been touched
by the proianing plowShare or spade
The works ON either side have melted
away under the hand Of the hushandmap,
but the bloody old crater has been
Stunned and spared. OF course, the
crater itself has been filled in to some ex.
tent by rainwashes and vegetable de-
post and the highest mounds beaten
down trlfe, but in the main the place
remains unchanged since the close of the
war.
You stand upon the edge Of the crater
over which the opposing lines fought in
fierce hand-to-hand struggle with swords,
pistols, knives, dubbed muskets and bay
onets, aud look down into that hell-hole
u dark and dreadful memories. From
that contracted space four hundred
corpses have been dug, and no one knows
a..