Waterbury evening Democrat., 1903-07-03

| fixed at 3 o'clock D. m. Grant mar shaled long columns of infantry be- 1 hind the works nearest the scene, ready for advance the moment the breach was sprung. The general, with his subordinate commanders, stood to- gether at the naval guns, the highest position between the lines. At the ap- pointed hour the din of 150 Federal cannon, accompanied by the rattle of 1 50, 900 muskets, ceased on the instant. | Only a few of the tens of thousands watching and waiting knew what was I to come. Suddenly the earth trembled, and l the crown of the fort, with the out l work adjoining, seemed gently lifted l from the foundation. Great Assures 1 appeared in the rising mass, which gradually settled back, with the ex- ception of the very center, where 8 column of fine earth, mingled with smoke and fire and solid objects, great and small, rose high in the air. As suddenly as they had ceased firing the 1 cannon and muskets opened with re- newed fury. Intense excitement fol- lowed the explosion, Grants waiting columns being no less surprised than l their foe.
 But there were hundred bluecoats close to the crater who were not sur prised. They comprised volunteers I from the Twenty-third Indiana and Forty-ffth Illinois. who, trained in their part, dashed into the smoking crater. Not hand was raised to pre- vent the stormers from entering the breach, but the instant they scaled the
 debris which barricat1ed their advance beyond toward tHe heart of the citadel they met storm of bullets and shells from the Confederates in the rear of the fort The moment hand or head was exposed above the crest it was riddled with balls. Finally two lines were formed on the slope of the debris, and while the rear line loaded muskets the men in front fired at random over the crest.
 But the Confederates soon recover ed from their surprise and were mas ters of the situation. They climbed the other side of the slope and tossed l lighted shells and hand grenades into the ranks of the stormers. That was an hour for the hercest human pas sions. To the assailants the prize was within their grasp, and they reached for it at any cost. The Confederates, stung by the discovery that they had
 been outwitted, were equally savage in their determination to destroy their
 foe.
 The muskets of the Federals firing
 over the crest became too hot to hold,
 and they were exchanged for fresh
 ones. Shells and hand grenades were
 brought up to give the enemy as good
 as he sent. A volunteer from the First
 United States regulars-William Laz-
 arus- tossed twenty of these missiles
 over the crest and was himself killed
 by one thrown from the other side.
 Desperate as was the situation for
 the Federals fighting from the debris,
 they succeeded at last in checking the
 enemy's fire. Elevating the heels of
 their muskets, they fired bullets down
 the other slope upon the Confederates,
 and these, with the hand grenades and
 shells tossed over, proved too much for
 the Louisianians. Meanwhile the Fed
 eral engineers hauled some heavy tim
 Der out of the debris and built case
 mate at the base of the slope, which
 was proof against the enemy's fire. At
 the same time a parapet was thrown
 up back of the casemate where the
 Federals who had dashed into the era
 ter found shelter from the grenades and shells.
 But the vaIor of the stormers was wasted. The crater was too narrow for more than few men, and these
 few could not hold it against the big
 odds. During the night the troops : were withdrawn, and the miners set g to work to lay new galleries of powder a under the parts of the fort that still 8 defied them. A second explosion took 9 place July I which opened a large s breach, but there was no attempt to r charge into the crater. In the first ex- r plosion only few Confederates were '- lost, and these were miners at work t underneath the fort One of the min + CTS who came out alive was a negro. h He said he felt as though he had been
 lifted about three miles. He landed e hnhurt in the Federal lines and served e General Logan to the end of the siege s On the day of the Fort Hill affair l- the Confederates exploded two of their p eountermines, engulfng the rollers ot k the Federals at work over the mine f and filling in their trenches. A day s or two later the Confederates rolled a t barrel of powder containing al slow F fuse down upon a timber screen used l. by the besiegers to cover the work of l, digging. The charge of 125 pounds ex- # ploded on the mark and sent the tim.
 bers and other material high in the T air. A new screen was built in the II night, and the miners toiled on, fin n ishing their work and opening crater IT July 1 larger than the one of June 25 s The work of mining and all other oper t, ations of the siege came to sudden d end July 3, when the Confederate r. commander notified Grant of his de IS sire to surrender Vicksburg. ~ # GEORGE L. KILMER.
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