The Coolidge examiner., 1932-07-15
Confederate Eortification
Battery S

groups could be seen running towards the smOk-
ing Crater. Burnside and Ledlie had failed
TO clear their own defense obstacles and TO pre-
pare passages out of and over their own deep
trenches and their storm troops were disordered
and delayed accordingly. Not shot fired
from the Confederate side at first, but by the
time the Crater was filled by a hudded mob
of foremost men, the Confederate rifles were
cracking from lanks and front, hostile guns
were throwing gusts of canister, and II was fatal
to go beyond that scene of hideous death.
1.-TWO hundred and seventy-sx Confederates,
officers and men, were killed by the explosion
of Peasants mine. Gallant officers of the Union
line sprang out of the death pit and led few
of their bravest men as far as 100 yards be-
yond the Crater's lips, but forward of that none
went and nothing could live. Survivors raced
back for what shelter the pit could give them.
There one after another FELL torn by rifle balls
and shell fragments
Men started despairingly to dig a trench
from the Crater back to the Union lines Men in
the lines began to dig a hasty ditch towards
the Crater TO save what life they could from
certain death if the men remained there. To
wards noon orders were gotten into the Crater
for the men to withdraw the best they could.
They dashed for their lines, suffering heavy
loss The iascO' cost Grant 4,400 men. At about
2 p. m. the Confederates of Mahones division
held the Crater and all the horrors that lay
In and about It."
After Grants failure at the Crater, the siege
of Petersburg dragged on through the fall and
winter of 1864. Finally in the spring of 1865
came the climax in the tragedy of Petersburg
and in the greater drama of the decline of the
Confederacy. This act took place at Fort Sted-
man, the remains of which are one of the out
standing points of interest in the new national
military park today Captain Montague de-
scrbes the action there and its results as fol-
lows:
Fort Stedman was named for Col. Griffin
A. Stedman of Hartford, Conn, commanding
the Eleventh Connecticut Volunteer infantry
| regiment who had fallen in action August 5,
1864
"Confederates pretending to be deserters over
powered the Union picket line in front of Sted-
man around a. M, March %, 1865 and were
closely followed by the storming party, in three
columns one aimed straight at Stedman. the
other two at its fanking batteries. The sleep
ing garrisons were captured or fed in a night
mare of diSmay.
Grant and Meade were at City Point to greet
President Lincoln who had come down to at
| tend a grand review of the Army of the Poto-
mac, or to be in at the death as some thought
at the time, and it devolved upon General Parke
to take command. Parke ordered Tidban to
concentrate artillery upon the breach, Wilcox
| to recapture the last works and Hartranft to
concentrate his division, in reserve, and support
| Wilcox.
Dawn was breaking Fort Haskell began
flank fire upon the Confederates. Hartranft led
what formed troops he could find to check the
enemy and gain time Fort Haskell repulsed
determined attacks. At 7:30 a. N. Hartranft
received an order to take his assembling dvi-
sion and recapture Stedman, now swarming
with the enemy. He had the charge sounded
Is minutes later and 'in time one writer
put it, the Stars and Stripes were back upon
Stedman's parapets. The Confederate wave
receded to roll forward no more
Fifteen days later that happened which had
to happen at Appomattox Court House."
&c by Western Newspaper Union.)