The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1911-12-23

most desperate enterprises of the entire war.
There are today surviving members OF the
Forty-afth Illinois In whose veins the words Fort
Hill Mine" will make the blood tingle It was
only week before the Fourth on which Pember-
ton surrendered the Confederate city. In Logan's
front lay Fort Hill It was decided at 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 ire
mendous moral and strategical value to the Union
cause. The place was commanded by Confeder.
ate artillery and by sharpshooters in a hundred
rifle pits. 1t was known that If the explosion of
Fort Hill was success that few Of the men who
rushed into the crevasses could hope to come out
alive. 1t would be what the Saxons called a deed
OF derringdo. Owing to the limited space to be
occupied only single regiment was to be named
to jump into the great yawning hole after the ex-
posion and to hold 1t against the hell fire Of the
enemy until adequate protective works could be
thrown up
There as many volunteers for the enter.
prise as there were colonies 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 mighty upheaval. Silence had barely
fallen before there rose one great reverberating
yell. and the Lead Mine Regiment led by its col
onel. Jasper A. Maltby, with his lieutenant COL
itself into the smoking crater. The lieutenant COL
onel was shot through the head and MORALLY
wounded 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 of getting
some sort of protection thrown up before the en-
tire regiment should be annihilated Certain men
in the pit were toed off to answer the sharp
shooters fire and to make 1t hot for the cannon
aders in the Confederate battery. They did what
they could. but 1t avaed little to save their COM
rades, who were toiling to throw up the redoubt
Men fell every side.
Beams we're passed into the pit, and these were
put into position protection by the surviving
soldiers. The josts were placed lengthwise 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 ele-
walton. There he stood fully exposed shining
mark He put his shoulder under great piece
of timber. and. weak with wounds though he was,
he pushed 1t up and forward into place. The bull
lets 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. A solid shot struck the beam, from which
Colonel Maltby had Just removed his shoulder,
and split it into kindling Great sharp pieces of
the wood were driven into the colonel's side. and
he was hurled to the bottom of the black pit
The action was over shortly, for the gallant
Forty-fifth succeeded in making that deaths hole
tenabe. Then they picked up their colonel He
was still alive though the surgeon shortly after
ward said that it would be hard work to count
his wounds They took him to the field hospital.
and before he had been there hour there was
clicking over the wires to Washington message
carrying the recommendation that Colonel Jasper
A. Maltby Of the Lead Mine Regiment be made a
brigadier general of volunteers for conspicuous
personal gallantry in the face Of the enemy.
A week later Grants victorious forces marched
into vicksturg.
Colonel Jasper A. Maltby or General Jasper A.
Maltby as it soon became. lived until the end OF
the war; but no system could long Withstand the
shock and pain of those gaping wounds. He died
in the very city which he had helped to conquer
Afierward flag and precious memory were
rarely absent from the life which finally fickered
out when the white-hared little widow died u
ST. Luke's hospital. Chicago.