The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1895-08-20
THE TRUTH WILL BE ESTABLISHED
AT LAST.

ltuutItl dHN Ahpvi = bHe "''~'-
nevertheless overlooked.
We copied on Sunday from the Boston
Globe. an account Of the battle of the
Crater. on July 80. 1864, which gave an
entirely erroneous version Of that heroic
affair and which ascribed all Confederate
credit 10 General Malone, who is not
entitled TO II. while the real hero, General
-. \. Weisigor, vas totally ignored.
General Malone subst intiaily wrote
an account OF this hght twenty
odd years ago for the New York
Historical Magazine. in which ne
claimed that "of this fight Malone was
unquestionably the hero" That is, the
article was written by one J. Watts DE
Peyster. cf New YORK. who stated in The
article that it had been read ana APPROX
ed Of by Gen. Malone. The article con-
tanned some aspersons upon Gen. Early
which sent him after Malone, and the re-
suit was that Malone had the article re-
published in the magazine, with the
| offensive references to Early left out bnt
| his claims TO the part of hero preselN-
ed. Ii is not surprising therefore, thdO
| he should have told the Boston Globe
man that he fought the battle Of the era
| ter. when. in point of fact. he had moth
| ing whatever to do with H. and our INES
were recaptuied. not only without his CO.
operation. but in actual defiance of his or
| ders. We reproduce the following from
| the Globes article:
| 1t was in this emergency tnat Cen VII
| liam Malone showed his sOldiefy instinct
| and won the extra star when gave MN
1 . NTa4 -. a
! scnce OF Gen. Lee and other superior o.
| fCers. Gen. MsLOne found himself Tor
| the time being In command OF the Army
| OK Virginia, and ne proved equal 10 inc
| duties imposed upon him.
| When he realized the situation from MS
| position dt n considerable distance Oh the
| r.Qht from where the disaster occurred
| he orCered his Virginia and Florida OH
| caGes into line. ami hastily maschcd thrni
10 the scene OF operations. The General
| was at the head of his men. ana "heh
| he Jumped out OF the trench, he iOuhl
| himself only about 80 te-i rom me
Union troops, and facing what seemed Ill
| slant death.
Years afterward. when standing at tho
! ulscc where Gen. Malone left the trench,
ne described the situation 10 the wrlter
as follows:
| your men, so close that ! could almost
| distinguish the color Of IN eif eyes, my
| heart almost went into my mouth, as 1
| expected my last lJl lidl 'ult''.
an a few seconds. finding that / was
| stn alive, / came Ia the conclusion that
| ycIr men were in confusion, ana hastily
/ counting the battle flags aud knowing
the m mber of men they represented 1
! hrow that l was right and acted immedi-
/ atNy.
Il ordered my Virginia brigade out %
| the trench and gave an order % chars b.
which they did with yigor hat ! never
saw equalled on any heid. ana driving
| rtfg. q D. "a
! gained what We had lost md again
united the Confederate line"
| What is TO be thought of Mahone's
vanity and mmbuggery to tell news
paper man for publication that he ever
commanded the army of Northern Viz
| gnia? We should q pect Gen. Lee to turn
| in his coffin if there were any serious
| peril that such lie were going to get
| into history.
But for the Crater fight. The well estat-
nshcd facts are these: When the mine
was exploded part Of our line was
! blown up and tho Yankees rushed in and
took possession Of something like three or
| four hundred yards of them. 1t was
| known they were mining there, and that
great engineer. COL u. b. Harris, Of Cen.
| Beauregards staff. had arraignod for the
/ convergng fire Of many batteries at the
| point This fire was opened as soon as
the Yankees rushed into our works, and
they were never able 10 march through
! It, 1t held them there. fixed to the place
as though they had been rooted TO it,
Mahono's division was some two miles
TO the right Of the crater. but was the
most available bo1y of troops. so that
CEN Lee sent for it TO recapture our lines.
| II approached to within less than 20
yards Of them by a covered way. in which
Gen. Malone remained through the whole
affair As his old brigade, commanded
! by Gen. D. \. Weisiger, reached the end
| of the covered way. Malone ordered
| Weisiger to march out and form his men
i'm line of battle, his left at the eXtremi-
! ~ Of that part Of our lines occupied by
the enemy. and he was told 70 hold
| steady until the Georgia brigade formed
on his right. when. Malone told him. he
would give the order for the whole line
| to charge Weisger formed his brigade
i'm line of battle. and the Geo gia brigade
was marching cut and forming on his
right, when he saw that the Yank ees were
humping out OF our trenches and form
irg to charge him. With the inspiration
Of a soldier, Weisiper saw ihc critical
moment had arrived. and sending
STAFF officer to the covered way 20 Tell
Cen. Malone that he could not wait an
other moment. he gave the order 10 his
brigade to charge. It's 500 Nirsinians
rushed forward they swept everything
before them. iecartLTed the part Of che
line they covered, killed. wonn led, and
captured every man there-seyeral times
their own Lumbers-and performed one
OF the most glorious feats ever performed
in war.
Brave old Cen Weisiger was shot
through the tCdy Just as he got 10 our
works. and we shall never stand by ana
see his laurels, 50 nobly won. picked
frcm his brow and placed on that OF
man who was in place Of safety wnen
the deed was DONE and who haI no more
TO do with it than the German Kaiser
had.
When the Virginia brigade male 'his
rush, the Georgia brigade attempted 10
charge their part OF the line, but they
had not perfected their formation, the at
tempt was feebly made. and it proved
failure. An angle in our lines sep trdtef
Weisiger's brigade from the rest of our
lines occupied by the enemy. Later IN the
day the Alabama brigade of the division
was brought up and it made spirited
charge and recaptured that part OF IT.
These are the well-arthenticatei AMI
established facts OF this case.