The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-03-23

TO give themselves up, guns in hand, to the
| Union pickets. During this night of March
24-23th several bona fide GeSerters came in and
they were followed by some desperate men,
who approached the Union pickets ostensibly
to surrender. These pickets occupied de-
tached posts, and from three to FIVE men were
in each pit. The pretended deserters soon
made prisoners of nearly all OF tie pickets on
the line of the Third brigade, and then this
unwelcome menace to Gordon's enterprise
was removed. Behind the pickets were the
guards in the trenchesS When Gordon's
men began hewing at the abatis Instructions
on the Confederate side, the guard at Fort
Stedman called out, "What are you doing
there, Johnny" IAN right, 'Yank, only
picking corn"
Gordons storming parties were huddled
in the rifle pits of the Union picket lines,
andon signal, which followed this discovery,
they rushed over the narrow space and over
powered the trench guards OF the breastworks
adjoining Fort SUedman and captured Bat
terry Ten. The trench guards here belonged
10 the Fourteenth New York heavy artillery,
which garrisoned also Fort Stedrnan and Fort
Haskell. The men were nearly all asleep
although the guard and guard reliefs were at
the guard house. The commandant, Mai.
George N. Randall, was in his tent, and be-
ing aroused with the news that the enemy
was in the works he dispatched orders to have
the men turned out and placed in the trenches.
When he left his tent he ran into the Con-
federates and was made prisoner. and the
men along the works were seized while asleep
in their huts. The commander Of the guns IN
Battery Ten Lieut.. Nye, Fourteenth Massa-
cb1rCatTC Ha 1aI 70 xIoF1
pieces and was killed. Some of the men of
the Fourteenth New York opened the guns
Of Fort Stedman, and gave the assailants
canister in their faces, but in d very few min
utes the ConfederateS Swarmed on the works
and the Fourteenth men retired, leaving
about two hundred prisoners behind. The
guns OF these batteries, now in Gordon's
hands, were opened on Batteries Nine Eleven
and Twelve and on Fort Haskell, and the
sound gave the first general alarm on the
line. Promptly, now, these storming parties
OF about one hundred each moved out of the
Confederate works and passing inside of the
Union picket pits separated Tor the desperate
work Of the hour, the capture Of the batteries
bearing on Stedman, namely, Fort Haskell,
Battery Nine and the fortified battery in rear
OF Stedman. Also long line of s5irmishers
spread out to the rear and set out for the in
terror lines. Some of these reached the United
States military railroad running from City
Point along the line OF Union camps Here
they cut the telegraph wires In the darkness
there was running to and fro of aids and
orderlieS, and one after another these rushed
toward Fort Stedman and fell into the hands
of the enemy. The commander of the brig
ade, Gen. Mclaughlin, had been aroused,
and making his way to the front, reached
Fort Haskell just as the assault on that work
had been repulsed.
The storming party detailed to silence Fort
Haskell had been provided with a guide to
lead it to the rear of the work, but owing to
the changed appearance of things ON the
ground caused by the cutting away of trees,
and the fact that an old line of trenches in
front of the main line led him to suppose he
was inside Of the Union works, the party adj
vanced to the trout of the fort and ran into
the ready guns and muskets of the garrison.
The alarm that was caused by the sound of
chopping on the Confederate abatis had been
taken seriously by the trench guard here,
and the garrison had been awakened and
moved up to the parapet