The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-01-22

and yet the loss Of human life in the
rifepits in front Of Petersburg ex-
ccedcd it by comparison. Lee hung
to Petersburg as last hope. Driven
to bay there every Confederate soldier
fought with desperation. Up to that
time picket firing was looked upon by
both sides as little short Of murder.
and by tacit agreement was suspended
except at long intervals, when it was
ordered to cover some movement by
one SIDE or the other. Along the
front of what is known as 1.-The C.a-
ter the main dcfenscs were only a
muskct shot apart. In advance Of
these were trenches and covered ways,
and still further in advance the rifle
pits. The distance between Federal
and Confederate pits was act above
30O feet in any case, and here and
there, owing to the lay of the ground,
there were only thirty or forty. Ger
tain Of the pits were reached by COW
cred ways from the rear-others by
natural bitches. Some were connected
others isolated. In all cases two
men were detailed to pit, and when
the siege had fairly begun they mi ght
be relieved at the end Of two hours or
held prisoners, as it we're, for eight or
ten. On moonlight night, as we'll
as during all the hours of daylight,
the firing was continuous and venge-
full. If the night was dark one,
it slackened off after 10 o'clock,
though person exposing himself any
where within range was liable to be
s,ruck.
From daybreak to darkness the men
in the ri6e-pits had no other thought
except to kill. No mercy was shown
on either side, while every trick and
artifce was rcsorted to that man
might be lured to his death. The
rife pit was:only hip deep, and neither
wide nor long. Two men not only oc-
cupied every inch of room, but we're
obliged to assume such positions that
to be penncd up there for Two long
hours was enough TO use one up for
the rest of the day, to say nothing of
the danger. Each man must "squat"
instead of ait or kneel, and ten min
utes in that position puts dozen
kinks in the spinal column. From
the day those pits were occupied to the
hour the soldiers left them it was
kill, kill, kill. Many of the men de-
tailed were armed with fine rifles or
shotguns. If the latter arm was used
it was loaded with coarse buckshot.
and its contents were. almost certain
to wound or kill. To fire with any ac-
curacy one had 20 raise his head until
the eye could glance along the sights.
If he had his head up and ready to
pull the trigger when one of the men
In the opposite pit started to do the
same thing, the latter got bullet in
the forehead. or had the top of his
head blown off. The advantage was
OF course with the one " ho was in the
position first. When i. +, occupants of
a pit suspected that it vas "held up"
by the other side, one of the pair got
his rife all ready for quick shot and
the other resorted to trickery to draw
the fire of the enemy. There were a
dozen arti6ces practiced. A hat or a
cap might be slowly and cautiously
elevated on stick, hand thrown into
the air or dummy head exposed.
This dummy was made of wood and
shaped and painted to closely rcsem-
bic human head. In some cases
glass eyes and false hair were used to
make the deception more complete.
Some would last week, but most of
them not over two days. One of
them used in front of Fort He'll had
sixty-two bullets sent into it in one
day.
If a man was killed in one of the
pits at sunrise there was no
way of removing the body before night,
and sometimes not then. l knew
three or four cases where the survivor
had to remain with body for from
twenty to thirty hours. IF one of the
pair was wounded little or nothing
could be done, and within two hours
he would have empticd both canteens
OF their contents. l was in a pit one
day when my comrade received bul.
let in the left shoulder. We were
both crouched down and supposed our
selves perfectly safe. The bullet
struck small stone in the loose dirt
heaped around the edge of our pit and