Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1893-08-10
BURIED FOR A WHOLE DAY,
Sensations of n Man Under n Bur-
den of Sand and Timbers.

SS VI " ti"n shuCT " IL
den of Sand and Timbers.
The funeral of Joseph Nelson took
place in Oakland last week, and when
the coffin was lowered into the grave
he was buried for the second time.
The first burial was twenty-seven years
ago, when he was entombed alive at the
capture and explosion of Fort Fisher,
when he was buried in the debris for
thirty-SiX hours before he was found,
and then he was dug out for dead.
Joseph Nelson was then n Lad of twen-
ty-one, a volunteer Ia Company L, of
the Sixteenth New York regiment, and
attached to Gen. Benjamin +. Buffers
division. He was at the storming of
Fort Fisher under Gen. Ames, with a
fleet under the command of Admiral
Porter. Fort Fisher was captured, and
when it was evacuated by the Con-
federates the magazine was fired, and
when the Union forces took possession
the fort was blown into the air and the
Union troops with it. MI. Nelson was
buried many feet under the ruins, and
it was thirty-six hours before he was
found.
He was paralyZed from the burial,
and became Il sufferer from sciatic rheu-
matism for his entire. life from the
effects of the shock and exposure. He
never recovered, but was for q time
able to perform the duties of conductor
on IL light run on the Southern Pacific
railroad.
Mr.. Nelson was not always willing to
tell of his unusual experience of being
buried alive for such a length of time.
He was very graphic in his account.
however, and this il The way he told
it shortly before his death:
1t all seems like a nightmare, or the
things II fancies while in a fever
Fort Fisher seemed to be on top of me
with all the guns directed at me. T
could neither move nor speak. Slowly
| began to grow cold, so cold and numb
that i began to wonder if l were dead.
1t began at my feet and crept I'D
through my limbs and up my body un-
til 1T almost seemed to clutch at nv
heart. j thought that it was death it.
self-but / could hear noise. 1t was
very human noise, and sounds that told
me only too plainly that / was still
alive-the cries Of the dying and wound
ed from the battle and explosion. They
were over me and around me-cries
that made my already chilled body
colder. | could hear them everywhere,
1t seemed to me. the cries of those
in greater pain than !, for they We're
wounded and mangled, while II was
only cold.
II was buried up to my shoulders I'm
the heavy sand OF the breastworks.
but my head was free. Over it some
timbers and rocks had become crossed
and jammed, and they had formed a
roof over my head. This I did not
know ut the time. i could only feel the
terrible cold hat bcnumbed me. for
the pressure of the sand around nv
body drove the blood back to my heart
INT left me without feeling. / could
not move, my arms were buried in the
sand and j was absolutely pinioned.
j could breathe, and that was all. Then
there came n great pain in my head.
1t seemed as if il would burst and
still ] could do nothing. / was helpless.
/ hardly knew whether / was alive or
not. l was conscious, for / could hear
the cries OF the wounded, but that was
all ! knew save | could not move, and
that / was cold.
The fort blew up at Z o'clock in the
morning. and 1t was the following day
before | was found and dug out, and
all that time ! was conscious, but help
less"
When Mr.. Nelson was found he was
taken 10 the hospital at Wilmington,
\. c., but he never fully recovered
from the injury to his spine. and dur
ing the greater part of his life walked
on clutches. His wife died before he
did. and he left a son and a daughter.
San Francisco Examiner.