Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-03-25
A SLAUGHTER PEN.

sails with him on every voyage"
SLAUGHTER PEN.
["F. d. NJ" in Gin. Commercial Gazette
At half-past the fuse was lighted. Upon
the Federal side men grasped their muskets
nervously, they held their breath in awful
suspense, and could hear their hearts beat
in the black stiffness. The Confederates
slumbered on peacefully in the doomed fort,
the men on their picket line in the perfect
quiet almost forgetting to peep occasionally
through the eye-holes in the breast-works
looking toward the Yankee works, 300 feet
away. And all this time the little Kissing,
sputtering flame of the fuse was running
along through the dark gallery, nearer and
nearer to the 800 kegs of powder stored
thirty feet beneath them.
There was the first faint streak Of gray
upon the eastern sky as the mine exploded.
Those waiting felt a strange thrill run
through the earth, and then, said one, '1t
seemed as though the earth had exploded"
The ground rocked under the tremendous
recoil, as solid mass of earth rose slowly
200 feet in the air, the exploding gunpowder
blazing through it like 'lightning playing
through bank of Clouds" seemed to hang
poised an instant, and then with vast
roaring sound in showers of stones, broken
timbers, cannon, blackened human limbs or
bodies, it fell, and heavy cloud of black
smoke foated off. The dreadful work had
been thoroughly done. Where the Elliott
salient had stood there was now horrible
chasm $50 feet long, sixty feet wide and
from twenty-five to thirty feet deep, and its
brave garrison lay buried beneath the jag
ged blocks of blackened clay-in all 256 off,
GERS and men of the Eighteenth and Twen-
ty-Second South Carolina, and twenty-five
men of Pegram's battery.
Instantly the Union batteries opened with
every gun from Appomattox creek to Jeru-
salem plank road, from Fort McGilvery to
Fort Davis, in horrid uproar. The air was
alive with bowling shot and screaming
shells, and the valley shr0uded in billowy
smoke. The troops pressed forward into
the crater and over the lines of the enemy,
stunned and demoralized, and the day Of
carnage began.
Hundreds of people have tried to tell the
story of the Battle of the Crater, which be-
gan with the explosion at in the morning
and ended with the recapture by the Confed-
crates about or o'clock in the afternoon.
The story can not be told. No language can
adequately describe it. It can not be paint
ed, for no colors are deep enough. The
story from the Federal side is not proud
one. Grant called it ''miserable affair.""
and summed it up as disgraceful affair to
the Union army, and cost the lives of nearly
5000 men.
The troops were the poorest in the north
ern army-mixed white and black-and led
by men who, if they possessed any knowl-
edge, bravery, or sense, failed to show 1t
upon that occasion. There was individual
galantry and many exhibitions of high
courage, and there was the most desperate
and deadly fighting of the war, but in gen.
eral there was no glory in the day for the
Yankees.
Our men huddled in the crater instead of
pushing on to- Cemetery hill, as ordered,
and soon an enfilading fire made it as dan
gerous to go backward as to 60 forward.
It was not until o'clock that the cOlored
troops were sent in. They charged over
the heads of the whites crowded in the
crater, swept over the crests cheering, and
spread to the right, capturing 200 prisoners
and flag. A heavy fire of artillery and
musketry sent them back to add to the con-
fusion in the crater and the numbers in
that horrible mixture of men alive, wound
ed and dead, and the ghastly debris of the
explosion.
The Confederates trained their heavy
guns upon this red slaughter-pen and drop
ned shells into the frenzied masses. The
Confederates charged repeatedly and poured
volleys into the crater. Back and forth
over the edge the men fought in desperate
dashes. They threw hand grenades over.
The Confederates lighted bombshells and
rolled them over the parapet into the era
ter.
Several charges of the Confederates were
beaten back in bloody repulses by the Fed
eral troops, and from the vast rim OF the
crater a steady storm of bullets poured upon
Mahones men, and every gun on the south
ern side was pointed at that place. When
all had been retaken but the crater the Con-
federate batteries ceased firing upon it, and
preparations were made for assault. Hap
PLY, before the assaulting party could be
formd white handkerchief made fast to
a ramrod appeared over the edge of the
crater, and after brief pause motley
crowd of prisoners poured over the sides
and an for their lives to the rear.
The Federals lost about 5000 in killed
and wounded and 1,10O prisoners. Two
brigade commanders were captured and
twenty-one flags, according to the authority
quoted. The Confederate loss was very
heavy too, the destructfulness of the fight
ing being shown by the fact that the Sixth
Virginia, with ninety-eight men, lost eigh-
ty-eight-one company from Norfolk hav-
ing every man killed. The sharpshooters
had eighty men and lost sixty-four.
SOME QUEER RELICS.
Bullets and other relics are still plenty.
There is building full of relics picked up
by Mr.. Griffin, the owner Of the place.
Some of them are particularly interesting.
One is made by two bullets meeting in the
air, striking point to point in exact range.
The result is disk of lead as large as sill
yer dollar, and about as thick, with the base
of the Yankee bullet showing in the centre
on one side and the Confederate bullet on the
other. Had these bullets passed each other
the fate of the men firing them would not
be hard to reckon.
Another queer relic is Confederate mus
ket, in the barrel of which two bullets met
splitting the barrel open like banana
peel. There the two bullets can be seen.