Clinch Valley news. [volume] (Jeffersonville, Va.) 18??-2019, 1907-03-22
RECOLLECTIONS OF A
CONFEDERATE SOLDIER
Hand to Hand Conflicts-Major K. K. Henry Serious
Iy Wounded in BattIe--" The Crater
BY CAPT. GEO. Il. LAKE.


Only on two occasions have seen
in hand to hand conflict, men kill
each other with the butts OF their guns
and with the bayonet.
AT the beginning OF the siege OF
Richmond and Petersburg the very
first day that Grants forces made an
attack on the South side OF the APP
pamattox river, 18th of June, 1864,
they captured a part of the Confederate
works. This was possibly as near as
two miles to the city. Among the men
who had been driven out of the lines
were the brigades OF Wise and Cling
man. 1t was nearly night and these
men made a stand about one hundred
yards in rear of the lines they had
given upon. 1t looked squally for
Petersburg. About 9 o'clock that
night Roger A. Pryor, who had been
a General in the army, but had resign
ed, and at this time was a volunteer
aid on the staff of Gen. Bushrod John
son, rode up to the Colonel of the
regiment of which / was a member.
and told him that Gen. johnson had
directed him to pilot the regiment to
the captured portion of the line, (it was
quite dark, and the Colonel must
charge the enemy entrenched on the
hill. He did not say it was our own
works that had been captured. How
ever, we made the charge. went into
the trenches, had "mix up" with the
Yankees. Men were thrust through
with the bayonet, and many poor
fellow had his brains knocked out with
the butt of a gun. Officers fought with
their swords. We recaptured the lines.
Wise's and Clingman's men were i'm
their lines again. The regiment allud
ed to had only two hundred and ninety
men, lost fifty of that number in the
charge. 1t was clear case of bluff.
The Petersburg papers said the next
morning that General Beauregard, who
was in command of the forces around
Petersburg, said, but for the charge of
that regiment and the recapture of our
lines, Petersburg would have been
captured the next day.
The next hand to hand fight that l
was in, only about six weeks later, was
in some respects the most terrific bat
tie OF the waI-the battle Of the Crater.
What is known now as the Crater was
the position where a portion of Pc
grams battery, 4 guns, men in position,
just one mile and a quarter from the
city limits of Petersburg, and $40 feet
from the breast works OF the federal
troops. Grant had failed again and again
to break the Confederate lines. At the
suggestion of one of his officers. he
tlnnelled from the rear of his works
to, and under the 4-gun battery-put
5000 pounds of powder in the mine
We knew this was being done. and that
in few days at most. Some of us
would be hurled into kingdom come.
The feeling was anything but pleasant.
About day light on Saturday, Both day
or July, 1864, that mine was sprung.
A hole where the cannons were, I35
feet long, 100 feet wide and 30 feet
deep was the result. One Of the can
mons was thrown 400 feet towards. and
near the Federal lines, another was
thrown in the same direction but not
so far, another was detached from the
carriage and was standing ON end half
buried in the loose earth. The remain
ing one was turned upside down, with