THE SIEGE OF PETERSBURG
June 9 will always be a sacred day to the citizens of Petersburg.
Every man capable of bearing arms had enlisted early in the service of
the Southern Confederacy. They felt that much was expected of them.
Petersburg had behaved gallantly in 1776, and had been the "Cockade
City" in 1812. For the first three years of the war, as we have seen,
no gun was fired near her gates. Only old men, women, and children were
left in the town. The maidens bore their denied lives with cheerfulness,
sustained and encouraged by the steadfast and serene bearing of their
elders. Everybody worked for the soldiers and assembled every afternoon
to pray for them. The city was almost as quiet as Blandford, her sister
city of the dead, where the old Blands, Bollings, and Poythresses slept
in perfect peace.
True, Petersburg, like Richmond, had her day of feverish excitement,
known in Confederate history as "_Pawnee_ Sunday," when both cities had
been menaced by an ironclad. Early in the morning a telegraph operator
had relieved a dull hour by interviewing his colleague at City Point,
"Any danger from the _Pawnee_?" receiving as answer, "The _Pawnee_
is coming up the Appomattox." The town was wild. Everything valuable
was hidden away, and the militia was drawn up, the lads of twelve and
fourteen loading their hunting pieces and rallying to the town hall.
Time having been allowed for any reasonable, well-conducted man-of-war
to steam twelve miles, the telegraph operator, sorely pressed by
questions, again interrogated his City Point friend. "What's become of
the _Pawnee_? She isn't here yet." The irate answer spun over the line:
"You—fool! I said the _Pawnee_ is _not_ coming up the river." Everything
fell flat at once. There was an avowed sense of disappointment at the
loss of an opportunity which might not come again. The dear women—the
best I have ever known in any land—resumed their gentle ministrations,
working much for the hospitals, and supplementing with culinary skill
many deficiencies in material. But the men chafed. The veterans had felt
the blood leap in their veins with the fire of youth; the boys longed
for the fray; the physician, tied to his humdrum routine, yearned for
the larger sphere in the field. "The dearest sacrifice a man can make
to his country is his ambition."
The _Pawnee_ incident was a fortunate one for the city, for it awakened
the authorities to the necessity of preparing against surprise. The
old, exempt citizens were formed into companies for home defence, and a
breastwork was prepared commanding a road, "particularly interesting,"
says one of the survivors, "because it opened to deserving Petersburgers
the beatific vision of Sussex hams and Southampton whiskey;" for at that
moment the dreaded foe was the wolf already at the door, rather than
the possible thunderbolt.
When General Butler, in June, 1864, commenced his advance against
Richmond, which was intended as a coöperative movement with General
Grant to accomplish what was done the following spring, he sent General
Kautz on June 9 to make a cavalry attack on Petersburg, twenty miles
below Richmond. The city, as I have said, was almost defenceless. There
had been much strategy,—marching and countermarching,—too long a story
to tell here; but one thing at least was accomplished, as one of the
Confederate colonels pithily remarked, "Whatever blunders were made,
the citizens and militia had been trotted out in the direction of the
enemy at least." Kautz's superb cavalry appeared suddenly, was met by
the old men and boys of Petersburg, and was repulsed. Colonel Fletcher
Archer commanded the militiamen. Forewarned only a few minutes before
the charge, he hastily formed his men into line. He says: "And what a
line! In number scarcely more than sufficient to constitute a single
company, in dress nothing to distinguish them from citizens pursuing
the ordinary avocations of life, in age many of them silvered over with
the frosts of advancing years, while others could scarcely boast of
the down upon the cheek of youth; in arms and accoutrements such as an
impoverished government could afford them. But there was that in their
situation which lifted them above the ordinary rules of criticism.
They stood there, not as mercenaries who, having enlisted on account
of profit, required the strong arm of military law to keep them to
their post, nor as devotees of ambition craving a place in the delusive
pages of history, but they stood as a band of patriots whose homes were
imperilled and whose loved ones were in danger of falling into the hands
of an untried foe. As they stood in line before me I could see them
glancing back at their own dwellings under the sun of a lovely June
morning. When I addressed them in a few words of encouragement, they
listened with gravity and a full appreciation of their situation. There
was no excitement, no shout, only calm resolution."
Thus their commander. What did the men themselves feel? One of them
wrote: "We had not long to wait. A cloud of dust in our front told of
the hurried advance of cavalry, and the next moment the glitter of spur
and scabbard revealed a long line of horsemen half a mile in front of
us. Oh, how we missed our cannon! Our venerable muskets were not worth a
tinker's imprecation at longer range than a hundred yards, and we were
compelled perforce to watch the preparations for our slaughter, much
after the fashion that a rational turtle may be presumed to contemplate
the preliminaries of an aldermanic dinner."
These were the men who saved the city. It was in honor of them that the
women and children marched through dust and heat on June 9, 1866, to
lay garlands of flowers upon their humble graves, and by their pious
action to inaugurate the beautiful custom, which is now observed all
over the country, of honoring the dead who fell in the Civil War. No
lovelier day ever dawned than June 9, 1864. The magnolia grandiflora
was in full flower, bee-haunted honey-locusts perfumed the warm air,
almost extinguishing the peachy odor of the microphylla roses, graceful
garlands of jessamine hung over the trellised front porches. Almost
the first intimation that the town received of its great peril was the
impetuous dash through the streets of the Confederate artillery. The
morning was so sweet and bright that the women and little children were
abroad in the streets, on their way to market, or on errands to the
shops, or to visit with fruit and flowers the old and sick among their
friends. Lossie Hill, the daintiest of dainty maidens, was picking her
leisurely way in the dusty street, going to spend the morning with
old Mrs. Mertens, when she heard the frantic shout: "Get out of the
way! Damn the women! Run over them if they won't get out of the way."
This was the morning greeting of the politest of gentlemen,—Captain
Graham,—whose guns were thundering down the street to the rescue of
the slender line at the front. As fast as the dread news reached the
men exempt from duty, who were engaged in their various professions and
vocations, every one dropped his business and rushed to the firing line.
The oldest men were as ardent as the youngest. One man, a druggist,
began, while pulling on his accoutrements, to give directions to a
venerable clerk whom he expected to dispense drugs in his absence.
"Now," said the old man, "if you want anything done at home you must
talk to somebody else! I am going to the front! I'm just like General
Lee. I should be glad if these fellows would go back to their homes
and let us alone, but if they won't they must be made to, that's all."
With their arms around their father, pretty Molly and Gussie Banister
implored him not to go forth. He was president of the bank, he was frail
and not young. "The duty of every man lies yonder," said he, pointing to
the puffs of smoke at the gates of the town, and shouldering his musket
he marched away.
Mr. William C. Banister was a cultivated, Christian gentleman, one
of Petersburg's most esteemed and beloved citizens. His widow and
sweet daughters received him—dead—on the evening of the battle. Molly
Banister, one of the dear girls who blessed my life in those anxious
days, has told the story of her martyred father's patriotic fervor:—
"My father had been on duty out on the lines on previous occasions,
always against the entreaty of the members of his family. We thought
his infirmity, deafness, ought to excuse him. Besides this, he was a
bank officer and over military age. When the court-house bell, on the
morning of the 9th of June, sounded the alarm, he was at his place of
business, in the old Exchange Bank, and we hoped he would not hear it.
He got information, however, of the condition of things, came at once
home, and informed us of his purpose to go out to the lines. My mother
and I besought him not to go, urging that he could not hear the orders.
"'If I can't hear,' he said, 'I can fight—I can fire a gun. This is no
time for any one to stand back. Every man that can shoulder a musket
must fight. The enemy are now right upon us.'
"Bidding us good-by he left the house. On the street, near our gate, was
a man, just from the lines. Addressing him, my father said, pointing to
the lines:—
"'My friend, you are needed in this direction.'
"'I am absent on leave,' said the man.
"'No leave,' replied my father, 'should keep you on such an occasion as
this. Every man should fight now!'
"I have been informed that as he came up from the bank he urged in the
same way all whom he met, capable, as he thought, of bearing arms."
Patty Hardee's father, another man past age for military service, was
one of the first to report for duty, and among the first to be borne,
dead, to his daughter.
Robert Martin, also exempt, and the father of an adoring family,
immediately joined the ranks. Almost totally deaf, he could hear no
orders, and continued to load his gun after the order to cease firing
was given and the company had begun to move off. A comrade ran up,
put his lips to his ear, and remonstrated. "Stop firing!" exclaimed
the veteran with disgust. "Orders? I haven't heard any orders to stop
firing," and he continued to advance. As Nelson at Copenhagen, who, when
told that he had been signalled to stop fighting, turned his blind eye
to the station, exclaiming, "_I_ see no signal!"
These are but a few of the many incidents which illustrate the courage
of these stout-hearted veterans and the spirit behind their small force
which inspired that courage and compelled success. They fought—one
hundred and twenty-five men, badly armed and untrained—behind their
frail defence; one hundred and twenty-five against twenty-three hundred
of the enemy, holding them at bay for two hours! General Butler was
greatly chagrined at the failure of this move upon Petersburg. He sent
a characteristic letter of reproof to his general officer north of
the Appomattox. After detailing all the mistakes that had led to the
humiliating repulse, he adds testily: "You have endeavored to state in
your report what my orders to General Kautz were. That was no part of
your report. I know what my orders were without any information from
that source," adding, "certain it is that forty-five hundred of my best
troops have been kept at bay by some fifteen hundred men, six hundred
only of which were Confederate troops and the rest old men and boys, the
cradle and the grave being robbed of about equal proportions to compose
the force opposed to you."
"The cradle and the grave!" Alas, yes! There was no triumph on the
evening of that day. Half the gallant company was gone. There was
wailing within the city gates that night. "The hand of the reaper" had
taken "the ears that were hoary," and the daughters wept for the good,
gray head gone forward to the "eternal camping ground" after a long
life of peace. For these gallant gentlemen the white rose which shaded
my door yielded all its pure blossoms. Well was it for the sake of my
own devotion that this was an ever blooming rose! I had watered and
nourished it with care, unconscious of its high vocation, to bud and
blossom and lie on the noble heart of more than one soldier. My own
husband was in the fight, and sent the first news of the repulse of the
enemy and the safety of his boyhood's home.
Immediately after the battle on the line, June 9, we observed unusual
activity in our streets. Great army wagons passed continually, pausing
often at a well before my door to water their horses. Clouds of dust
filled the city. Evidently something unusual was going on. "We are only
re-enforcing our defences," we said, and comforted ourselves in the
thought.
One day my father came in unexpectedly. The army corps to which he was
attached had camped near Petersburg!
"I've just met General Lee in the street," he said.
I uttered an exclamation of alarm. "Oh, _is_ he going to fight here?"
"My dear," said my father, sternly, "you surprise me! The safest place
for you is in the rear of General Lee's army, and that happens to be
just where you are! The lines are established just here, and filled with
Lee's veterans."
This was startling news, but more was to follow. One Sunday
afternoon,—the next, I think,—the Presbyterian minister had gathered
his flock of women and children for service in the church opposite my
home, and had just uttered the first sentence of his opening prayer,
"Almighty Father, we are assembled to worship Thee in the presence of
our enemies," when an awful, serpentlike hiss filled the church, and a
shell burst through the wall.
In a moment the church was empty, and Dr. Miller, the pastor, was
telling me that his congregation had dismissed itself without a
benediction!
"And the shell?" I inquired.
"It lies upon the table in the church," said the doctor; "nobody dares
remove it."
This was the first shell that entered our part of the town. From that
moment we were shelled at intervals, and very severely. There were no
soldiers in the city. Women were killed on the lower streets, and an
exodus from the shelled districts commenced at once.
As soon as the enemy brought up their siege guns of heavy artillery,
they opened on the city with shell without the slightest notice, or
without giving opportunity for the removal of non-combatants, the sick,
the wounded, or the women and children. The fire was at first directed
toward the Old Market, presumably because of the railroad depot situated
there, about which soldiers might be supposed to collect. But the guns
soon enlarged their operations, sweeping all the streets in the business
part of the city, and then invading the residential region. The steeples
of the churches seemed to afford targets for their fire, all of them
coming in finally for a share of the compliment.
To persons unfamiliar with the infernal noise made by the screaming,
ricocheting, and bursting of shells, it is impossible to describe the
terror and demoralization which ensued. Some families who could not
leave the besieged city dug holes in the ground, five or six feet deep,
covered with heavy timbers banked over with earth, the entrance facing
opposite the batteries from which the shells were fired. They made
these bomb-proofs safe, at least, and thither the family repaired when
heavy shelling commenced. General Lee seemed to recognize that no part
of the city was safe, for he immediately ordered the removal of all the
hospitals, under the care of Petersburg's esteemed physician, Dr. John
Herbert Claiborne. There were three thousand sick and wounded, many of
them too ill to be moved. A long, never-ending line of wagons, carts,
everything that could run on wheels, passed my door, until there were no
more to pass. We soon learned the peculiar, deep boom of the one great
gun which bore directly upon us. The boys named it "Long Tom." Sometimes
for several weeks "Long Tom" rested or slept—and would then make up
for lost time. And yet we yielded to no panic. The children seemed to
understand that it would be cowardly to complain. One little girl cried
out with fright at an explosion; but her aunt, Mrs. Gibson, took her
in her arms, and said: "My dear, you cannot make it harder for other
people! If you feel very much afraid, come to me, and I will clasp you
close, but you mustn't cry."
Charles Campbell, the historian, lived near us, at the Anderson
Seminary. He cleared out the large coal cellar, which was fortunately
dry, spread rugs on the floor, and furnished it with lounges and
chairs. There we took refuge when the firing was unbearable. Some of
our neighbors piled bags of sand around their houses, and thus made them
bomb-proof.
The Rev. Dr. Hoge, who had come South from the Brick Church, New York,
of which he had been pastor, was lying ill and dying a few miles from
Petersburg, and my friend Mrs. Bland invited me to accompany her to
visit him. She had borrowed an ambulance from General Bushrod Johnson.
We made our call upon our sick friend, and were on our return when we
were suddenly startled by heavy firing. The ambulance driver was much
excited, and began to pour forth in broken English a torrent of abuse
of the Confederacy. As we were near home, we kept silence, thinking
that, if he grew more offensive, we could leave him and walk. Mrs. Bland
undertook to reason with him.
"What is your grievance?" she inquired. "Perhaps we might see the
colonel and arrange a better place for you—some transfer, perhaps."
"Nevare! nevare!" said our man, "I transfare to my own koontree! I make
what you call—'desairt.' Mon Dieu! dey now tell me I fight for neeger!
Frenshman nevare fight for neeger."
All this time the guns were booming away, and clouds of smoke were
drifting toward us. We were glad to arrive at my door.
It was closed. There was not a soul in the house. One of the chimneys
had been knocked down, and the bricks lay in a heap on the grass. I
thought of Mr. Campbell's bomb-proof cellar; there we found my children,
and there we remained until the paroxysmal shelling ceased.
One night, after a long, hot day, we were so tired we slept soundly. I
was awakened by Eliza Page, standing trembling beside me. She pulled me
out of bed and hurriedly turned to throw blankets around the children.
The furies were let loose! The house was literally shaking with the
concussion from the heavy guns. We were in the street, on our way to our
bomb-proof cellar, when a shell burst not more than fifty feet before
us. Fire and fragments rose like a fountain in the air and fell in a
shower around us. Not one of my little family was hurt.
Another time a shell fell in our own yard and buried itself in the
earth. My baby was not far away, in her nurse's arms. The little
creature was fascinated by the shells. The first word she ever uttered
was an attempt to imitate them. "Yonder comes that bird with the broken
wing," the servants would say. The shells made a fluttering sound as
they traversed the air, descending with a frightful hiss, to explode or
be buried in the earth. When they exploded in midair by day, a puff of
smoke, white as an angel's wing, would drift away, and the particles
would patter down like hail. At night, the track of the shell and its
explosion were precisely similar in sound, although not in degree, to
our Fourth of July rockets, except that they were fired, not upward,
but in a slanting direction. I never felt afraid of them! I was brought
up to believe in predestination. Courage, after all, is much a matter
of nerves. My neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Gibson and Mrs. Meade, agreed
with me, and we calmly elected to remain in town. There was no place of
safety accessible to us. Mr. Branch removed his family, and, as far as
I knew, none other of my friends remained throughout the summer.
Not far from the door ran a sunken street, with a hill, through which it
was cut, rising each side of it. Into this hill the negroes burrowed,
hollowing out a small space, where they sat all day on mats, knitting,
and selling small cakes made of sorghum and flour, and little round meat
pies. I might have been tempted to invest in the latter except for a
slight circumstance. I saw a dead mule lying on the common, and out of
its side had been cut a very neat, square chunk of flesh!
With all our starvation we never ate rats, mice, or mule-meat. We
managed to exist on peas, bread, and sorghum. We could buy a little
milk, and we mixed it with a drink made from roasted and ground corn.
The latter, in the grain, was scarce. Mr. Campbell's children picked up
the grains wherever the army horses were fed.
My little boys never complained, but Theo, who had insisted upon
returning to me from his uncle's safe home in the country, said one day:
"Mamma, I have a queer feeling in my stomach! Oh, no! it doesn't ache
the least bit, but it feels like a nutmeg grater."
Poor little laddie! His machinery needed oiling. And pretty soon his
small brother fell ill with fever. My blessed Dr. Withers obtained a
permit for me to get a pint of soup every day from the hospital, and
one day there was a joyful discovery. In the soup was a drumstick of
chicken!
"I cert'nly hope I'll not get well," the little man shocked me by saying.
"Oh, is it as bad as that?" I sighed.
"Why," he replied, "my soup will be stopped if I get better!"
Just at this juncture, when things were as bad as could be, my husband
brought home to tea the Hon. Pierre Soulé, General D. H. Hill, and
General Longstreet. I had bread and a little tea, the latter served in a
yellow pitcher without a handle. Mrs. Campbell, hearing of my necessity,
sent me a small piece of bacon.
When we assembled around the table, I lifted my hot pitcher by means of
a napkin, and offered my tea, pure and simple, allowing the guests to
use their discretion in regard to a spoonful or two of very dark brown
sugar.
"This is a great luxury, Madam," said Mr. Soulé, with one of his
gracious bows, "a good cup of tea."
We talked that night of all that was going wrong with our country, of
the good men who were constantly relieved of their commands, of all the
mistakes we were making.
"Mistakes!" said General Hill, bringing his clenched fist down upon the
table, "I could forgive mistakes! I cannot forgive lies! I could get
along if we could _only_, _only_ ever learn the truth, the real truth."
But he was very personal and used much stronger words than these.
They talked and talked, these veterans and the charming, accomplished
diplomat, until one of them inquired the hour. I raised a curtain.
"Gentlemen," I said, "the sun is rising. You must now breakfast with
us." They declined. They had supped!
I had the misfortune early in June to fall ill, with one of the sudden,
violent fevers which cannot be arrested, but must "run its course" for
a certain number of days. I was delirious from this fever, and wild with
the idea that a battle was raging within hearing. I fancied I could hear
the ring of the musket as it was loaded! Possibly my quickened senses
had really heard, for a fierce battle was going on at Port Walthall,
a station on the Richmond and Petersburg railroad, six miles distant.
General Butler had landed at Bermuda Hundred and had been sent by
General Grant to lead a column against Richmond on the south side of
the James and to coöperate with forces from the Wilderness. Butler had
reached Swift Creek, there to be met by General Johnson, and repulsed
as far as Walthall Junction on the railroad. The following day there
was a hotly contested battle at close quarters, continued on the next,
when our men, although greatly outnumbered by Butler's forces, drove
these back to their base on the James River. All this time my excited
visions were of battle and soldiers, culminating at last by the presence
of one soldier, leaning wearily on his sabre in my own room. I did not
recognize the soldier, but memory still holds his attitude of grief as
he looked at me, and the sound of his voice as he answered my question,
"Where have you been all this time?" with, "In more peril than in all
my life before."
But the fever crisis was passing even then, and I was soon well enough
to learn more. This was another of the well-planned schemes for taking
Richmond, another of the failures which drew from Lincoln the gravely
humorous reply, when application was made to him for a pass to go to
Richmond:—
"I don't know about that; I have given passes to about two hundred and
fifty thousand men to go there during the last two or three years, and
not one of them has got there yet."
Dr. Claiborne went out to this Walthall battle-field to help the
wounded, taking with him surgeons and ambulances. A dreadful sight
awaited him. Bodies of dead men, Federal and Confederate, lay piled
together in heaps. On removing some of these to discover if any one of
them might be still alive, a paper dropped from the pocket of a young
lieutenant, written in German to a lady in Bremen. Upon reading it, Dr.
Claiborne found it was addressed to his betrothed. He told her that his
term of service having expired, he would soon leave for New York City,
and he gave her the street and number where she should meet him on her
arrival in this country. This was his last fight, into which he went
no doubt voluntarily, as he was about to leave the army. Doubtless the
blue-eyed _Mädchen_ looked long for him on the banks of the Weser! The
doctor indorsed the sad news on the letter, and sent it through the
lines. Perhaps it reached her, or perhaps she is telling her story this
day to other blue eyes on the Weser, eyes that look up and wonder she
could ever have been young, lovely, and the promised bride of a gallant
Union officer.
The Confederate government utterly neglected the praise and distinction
so freely awarded by other nations in time of war, for deeds of
gallantry and valor. Says Major Stiles: "Not only did I never see or
hear of a promotion on the field, but I do not believe such a thing
ever occurred in any army of the Confederacy from the beginning to the
end of the war. Indeed, I am confident it never did; for, incredible
as it may appear, even Lee himself did not have the power to make such
promotion. I never saw or heard of a medal or a ribbon being pinned on
a man's jacket, or even so much as a man's name being read out publicly
in orders of gallantry in battle."[18]
Hanging in my husband's library, among other war relics, is a heavy
silver medal, representing in high relief a soldier charging a cannon.
On the obverse side is a laurel wreath, space for a name, and the words,
"Distinguished for courage: U. S. Colored Troops." No such medal was
ever given by our government to its hardly used, poorly paid private
soldiers. Some of them fought through the war. They starved and froze in
the trenches during that last dreadful winter, but no precious star or
ribbon was awarded, to be hung with the sabre or musket and venerated
by generations yet to come. Among my few preserved papers I have two
in faded ink. One is signed Bushrod Johnson, the other D. H. Hill.
The latter says: "The victory at Walthall Junction was greatly due to
General Roger A. Pryor. But for him it is probable we might have been
surprised and defeated." The other from General Johnson runs at length:
"At the most critical juncture General Roger A. Pryor rendered me
most valuable service, displaying great zeal, energy, and gallantry in
reconnoitring the positions of the enemy, arranging my line of battle,
and rendering successful the operations and movements of the conflict."
At General Johnson's request my husband served with him during the
midsummer. Such letters I have in lieu of medal or ribbon,—a part only
of much of similar nature; but less was given to many a man who as fitly
deserved recognition.
My General, who had been in active service in all the events around
Petersburg, was now requested by General Lee to take with him a small
squad of men, and learn something of the movements of the enemy.
"Grant knows all about me," he said, "and I know too little about Grant.
You were a schoolboy here, General, and have hunted in all the bypaths
around Petersburg. Knowing the country better than any of us, you are
the best man for this important duty."
Accordingly, armed with a pass from General Lee, my husband set forth
on his perilous scouting expedition, sometimes being absent a week at
a time. One morning, very early, he entered my room.
"I am dead for want of sleep," he said. "I was obliged to take some
prisoners. They are coming in under guard, and you must give them a
good breakfast." As he walked out of the room to find a quiet corner,
he called back, "Be sure, now! Feed my prisoners, if all the rest of us
lose our breakfast."
He had suggested the only way in which he could be obeyed.
Five forlorn blue-coated soldiers soon appeared, and lay down under
the trees. Presently they were all asleep. I called my little family
together. We had only a small pail of meal. Would they be willing to
give it to these poor prisoners?
They were willing, never fear; but I had trouble with John. He grew
very sullen when I ordered him to bake the bread for Yankee prisoners in
five small loaves. I promised to send out for more provisions later, and
finally he yielded, but with an ill grace. When the hot loaves were on
the table, flanked by sweetened corn-coffee, I deputed Paterson Gibson,
my neighbor's kindly young son, to waken my guests. This was no easy
matter.
"Come, now, Yank," said Pat, "get up and eat your breakfast. Come now!
Cheer up! We'll send you home pretty soon."
We left them alone at their repast. It occurred to me they might try to
escape, and I heartily wished they would. But after an hour they were
marched away, we knew not whither.
On July 30th occurred the dreadful explosion of the mine which the enemy
had tunnelled under our line of fortifications.
A little after four in the morning the city was roused by the most
awful thunder—like nothing I can imagine, except, perhaps, the sudden
eruption of a volcano. This was the explosion of a mine tunnelled by
General Grant under our works. Instantly the unhappy residents of the
town poured into the street and out on the road, anywhere to escape
what we supposed to be an earthquake. No words can adequately describe
this horror! We lost a part of our line. Colonel Paul, a member of
Beauregard's staff, was sent to inform General Lee of the disaster,
and bore back his orders that the line must be at once recaptured. As
the colonel passed his father's house, he ran in and found the old
gentleman's hand on the bell-rope to summon his household to family
prayers.
"Stay, my son, and join us at prayers," said the old man. "Get some
breakfast with your mother and me." The colonel could not pause. He must
leave this peaceful home, and bear his part in protecting it.
When the veterans meet to-day for their camp-fire talk, it is of the
"battle of the Crater," the shocking incidents of which cannot be told
to gentle ears, that they speak most frequently. The fountain of fire
that shot up to heaven bore with it the dismembered bodies of man made
in God's own image. Then infuriated men, black and white, leaped into
the chasm and mingled in an orgy of carnage. No one has ever built
on that field. Nature smooths its scars with her gentle hand, but no
dwelling of man will ever rest there while this tragedy is remembered.
On May 3d, 1887, Federal and Confederate veterans met on this spot and
clasped hands together. Since then the Confederates have met there again
and again. Each one has some story to tell of heroism, of devotion, and
the stories are not always tragic. Some of them have been gleaned from
the experiences of the boys in blue.
Lieutenant Bowley of the Northern army delivered an address before the
California commandery of the Loyal Legion of the United States, and
quotes from the address of a negro preacher to his fellows just before
the explosion of the crater. He was sergeant of a company of negroes,
and thus exhorted them:—
"Now, men, dis is gwine to be a gret fight, de gretest we seen yit; gret
things is 'pending on dis fight; if we takes Petersburg, mos' likely
we'll take Richmond an' 'stroy Lee's army an' close de wah. Eb'ry man
had orter liff up his soul in pra'r for a strong heart. Oh! 'member de
pore colored people ober dere in bondage. Oh! 'member dat Gin'ral Grant
an' Gin'ral Burnside an' Gin'ral Meade an' all de gret gin'rals is right
ober yander a watchin' ye; an' 'member _I'se_ a watchin' ye an 'any
skulker is a gwine ter git a prod ob dis ba'net—you heah me!"
Words than which, except for the closing sentence, I know none more
pathetic.