The Red Cloud chief., 1911-12-07

most desperate enterprises Of the entire war.
There are today surviving members of the
Fortyffth Illinois in whose veins the words Fort
Hill Mine" will make the blood tingle. II was
only week before the Fourth which Pember.
ton surrendered the Confederate city In Logan's
front lay Fort Hill. II was decided at n council
OF the generals that its sapping and mining and
the subsequent selling and holding of the EN-.
brasure made by the explosion would be Of tre-
mendous moral and strategcal value to the Union
cause. The place was commanded by Confeder.
ate artillery and by sharpshooters In hundred
rifle pits. It known that II the explosion Of
Fort Hill was a success that few Of the men who
rushed into the crevasses could hope to come out
alive. 1t would be what the Saxons called deed
Of derring.do. Owing to the limited space to be
occupied only q single regiment was to be named
to Jump into the great yawning hole after the ex
plosion and to hold It against the hell fire Of the
enemy until adequate protective works could be
thrown up.
There was as many volunteers for the enter.
prise as there were coonels Of regiments In
Grants army. The choice fell on Jasper A. Malt.
by and his following Of Illinois boys.
The time came for the explosion. The Forty.
fifth lay grimly awaiting the charge into deaths
pit The signal was given; there came a heavy
roar and a mighty upheaval. Silence had barely
fallen before there rose one great reverberatng
yell. and the Lead Mine Regiment. led by its col.
onel Jasper A. Maltby. with his lieutenant COL
onel. Malancthon Smith. at his elbow. hurled
itself into the smoking crater. The lieutenant col
onel was shot through the head and mortaly
wonnded before his feet had fairly touched the
pits bottom. The colonel was shot twice. but
paid little heed to his wounds A battery Of
Confederate artillery belched shrapnel into the
ranks and sharpshooters seemed fairly to be firing
by volleys. The question became one Of getting
some sort Of protection thrown up before the en-.
tire regiment should be annhilated. Certain men
in the pit were tolled of to answer the sharp
shooters hre and to make II hot for the cannon.
aders in the Confederate battery. They did what
they could but It availed little to save their
rades. who were toiling to throw up the redoubt.
Men fell on every side.
Beams were passed into the pit. and these were
put into position as protection by the surviving
soldiers The 1oists we're placed lengthwse and
dirt was quickly piled about them Colonel Malt.
by helped the men to lodge the beams. He went
to one side Of the crater where there was no ee.
vation. There he stood fully exposed. a shining
mark He put his shoulder under a great piece
Of timber. and. weak with wounds though he was
he pushed 1t up and forward into place The bull
let's Clipped the woodwork and spat in the sand
all about him. One Confederate gunner of artil
lery trained his great piece directly at the devoted
leader solid shot struck the beam. from which
Colonel Maltby had just removed his shoulder
and split It into kindng, Great sharp pieces OF
the wood we're driven into the colonels side, and
he was hurled to the bottom Of the black pit
The action was over shortly, for the gallant
Forty-ffth succeeded in making that deaths hole
tenable Then they picked up their colonel He
was st alive though the surgeon shortly after
ward said that II would be hard work to count
his wounds They took him to the field hospital
and before he had been there an hour there was
clicking over the wires to Washington a message
carrying the recommendation that Colonel Jasper
A. Maltby Of the Lead Mine Regiment be made .
brigadier general OF volunteers for conspicuous
personal gallantry In the face Of the enemy
week later Grants victorious forces marched
into VcksLurg
Colonel Jasper A. Maltby or General Jasper A
Maltby as It soon became. lived until the end
the war. but no system could long withstand IN
shock and pain of those gaping wounds He die
In the very city which he had helped to conQue
Afterward u nag and a precious memory wer
rarely absent from the life which finally hckere
out when the white-haired little widow died
st. Luke's hospitsS Chicago