The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-06-27

Copyright, 1897, by S. S. Mcclure Coz
A peasant may rival a prince in the
depth and sincerity of feeling. hence
rank and condition do not count in the
display of noble emotion. But if it adds
nothing in way of pathos, it does lend
a halo of dignity and romance to the
strange incident here described TO
know that the heart out of whose
tumultuous fulness came forth the
greeting. You spared my fathers life
in battle" throbbed in the breast of
that talented young southerner, Henry
". Grady.
Our meeting was purely accidental.
Neither knew of the existence of the
other up to that time. Mr.. Grady was
in the company of General Gordon,
with whom L had an appointment for
the purpose of comparing notes of the
battle of Fort Stedman, one of the
most stirring events of the seige of
Petersburg. General Gordon had COM
manded the confederate force engaged
in that affair. Although a very humble
participant on the federal side, I was
in position to know some of the i'm
portant details which General Gordon,
and, as 1 afterward found Mr.. Grady,
also was anxious to learn.
General Gordon told how he had OBJ
tanned permission from his chieftain,
Robert z. Lee, to make a night attack
upon Grants lines near the Appomat
tox river, on the eastern line of Peters
burg. It was one of the boldest affairs
of the kind during the whole war. Cor
don selected a dark and foggy night
for the enterprise. and with a force of
u 900 men captured Fort Stedman and
several adjoining batteries, at the first
blow making a breach half a mile wide
in the Federal trenches and turning the
guns of the Federal artilBerists upon
their reserve camps. His attempt to
capture Fort Haskell, a strong redoubt
about so rods from Fort Stedman,
failed, and failure at that point baked
his whole enterprise. That failure had
always been a mystery TO General
Gordon, and it was the one phase in the
battle which I was asked to make clear.
1t had been a sine qua non in his plan
of action to have Fort Haskell surprised
by a small party of desperate men,
who were to dash through the breach
at Fort Stedman on the heels of the
captors of that work. pass around to
the rear of Fort Haskell and enter it
by a sally-poI,t, where there was but
one sentry on duty. This party of 100
men was misled by their guide, and
marched I'D to the front of Fort Has
kelI, instead of the rear. Trifies
sometimes decide great affairs,
and this affair was decided by an err
ratio timepiece. The watch of the ser
geant of the night guard. in whose
keeping lay the destiny of our little fort
for the time being, happened to be too
fast, and he had aroused the garrison
by sounding reveille much before the
usual hour. Consequently the federal
rihemen and artillerists were alert
when Gordon's storming party ap-
peared in front of the fort and came in
contact with the p5ckets, who spread
the alarm with the result that the hap
less cOnfederates were allowed to
march almost uo to the muzzles of the
guns. A couple of volleys of canister
and bullets annihilated the band. At
Ter that several attempts by other
parties sent out by Gordon from Fort
Stedman to silence Fort Haskell were
repulsed with great slaughter. The
tate of that first storming party was
mystery which General Gordon
wished to have explained Many other
interesting points of the battle wera
talked over, Mr.. Grady being a. most
attentive listener, much to my sur