The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-04-18
A SCENE OF TERROR.
The Part of the 18th Iowa In Holding tn,
Crater at Fort Hill.

EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: During
| the month of June, 1863, the Second Bri-
gade, Third Division, Seventeenth Corps
occupied a position In the siege-line, just to
| the left of Fort Hill. The brigade was COM
posed of the 18th Iowa, 10th Mo-, s0th Ohio
seth ILL.,, and 9th Wis. battery, commanded
by Col. S. A. Holmes, of the 10th Mo.
| About noon, on the 25th of June, an Or
| DERBY from Brigade Headquarters delivered
an order to Col. Clark Il. Viewer, 18th Iowa,
to take his regiment and the seth ILL.,, and
| join the detached forces that were to make
an attack on Fort Hill when the mine that
had been prepared should be exploded.
At 3 o'clock D. m. Maj. John F. Walden
moved the regiment to a point directly
| opposite Fort Hill, and to the left of a large
white house, placing them in gap running
parallel with the enemy's line
Soon after we took position the mine was
exploded, after which all the batteries in
reach opened fire, which caused the boys to
eIcaim: "Helrs broke loose" Under
cover of this fire the Goth and 10th Ill.
made the first assault. From our position
| we could see these men attempt to scale the
works, going up as against hard hail
storm, which in this case was hail of lead,
and the number of men that went down
with it was terrific.
Later on these troops were relieved by
the 31st and 56th I'll. AT 10 p. m. the 18th
Iowa was ordered into the breach by de-
tachments, it having been found that too
many men were in at one time, making the
casualties greater.
During the next three hours the 18th Iowa
held the crater, taking their position by the
glare of the bursting shell which were
thrown over the parapet by the enemy, be-
hind which he seemed safely lodged. As
many men as could fire TO advantage were put
upon the broken wall that separated them
from the enemy; the balance loaded the
pieces.
In this way a constant fire was kept up,
and the enemy was successfully foiled in
their attempt to occupy the crater. In addi-
ton to the steady fire from their rifles, they
necessarily threw in upon us grenades (six
and 10-pound SHELF, which instead of in
timidating our men served TO make them
fire more rapidly and fight with greater
determination.
A detail from McAllster's battery, list Ill.
L. A, attempted to throw shell from our side,
and would have been successful had not the
ammunition furnished them been too heavy.
For this reason several men were badly
hurt by premature explosions The Pioneer
Corps of our division was on hand ready to
work The work they had to do was de-
Tending themselves. The shouts of the
combatants at the top of the parapet, the
glare Of the bursting SHE'LL and the curses
and groans of the wounded, mingled on the
night air. made it a scene of Understandable
horror. A little after l q. m. of the 26th
the 3lst ILL., came in and relieved US. Of
the 900 men that went in, nearly one-half
were killed or wounded. The total loss of all
regiments engaged being over l 100 gavethe
place the name of Logan's slaughter-pen."
L never knew who was responsible for this
worse than useless slaughter, but am salts
fed that Gen. Logan was only acting under
orders from some superior Ofiicer.-H. NJ.
KENDERDINE, Major, 18th Iowa. Carbondale,
Kan.