Show 1 t < 1 v WITH HIS IiEROIC BLOODrot + fl rot The Gallant Death of the Father of Henry W Grady the fJ Brilliant Georgia Journalist l T > + w r v wr v tv ns Gyva Copyright 1897 by S S McClure Co A Deasant may rival a prince In the depth and sincerity of feeling hence rank and condition do not count In the display of noble emotion But if It adds nothing In way of pathos it does lend a halo of dignity and romance to the strange incident here described to know that the heart out of whose tumultuous funess came forth the greeting You spared my fathers life in battle throbbed in the breast of that talented young southerner Henry W Gradv Our meeting was purely accidental Neither knew of the existence of the other up to that time Mr Grady was in the company of General Gordon with whom I had an appointment for the purpose of comparing notes of the battle of Fort Stedman one of the most stirring events of the seige of Petersburg General Gordon had commanded com-manded the confederate force engaged in that affair Although a very humble participant on the federal side I was in a position to know some of the important im-portant details which General Gordon and as I afterward found Mr Grady also was anxious to learn General Gordon told how he had obtained ob-tained permission from his chieftain Robert E Lee to make a night attack upon Grants lines near the ADDomut tox river on the eastern line of Petersburg Peters-burg It was one of the boldest affairs of the kind during the whole war Gordon Gor-don selected a dark and foggy night for the enterprise and with a force of 12000 men captured Fort Sbedman and several adjoining batteries at the first Wow making a breach half a mile wide in the Federal trench and turning the guns of the Federal artillerists upon their reserve camps His attempt to capture Fort Haskell a strong redoubt about SO rods from Fort Stedman failed and failure at that point balked his whole enterprise That failure had always been a mystery to General Gordon and It was the one phase in the battle which I was asked to make clear It had been a sine qua non in his plan of action < to have Fort Haskell surprised by a srrtall party of desperate men who were to dash through the breach at Fort Stedman on the heels of the captors of that work pass around to the rear of Fort Haskell and enter it by a sallyport where there was but one sentry on duty This party of 100 men was misled by their guide and marched UP to the front of Fort Has kell Instead of the rear Trifles sometimes decide great affairs and this affair was decided by an erratic I ratic timepiece The watch of the sergeant ser-geant of the night guard in whose keeping lay the destiny of our little fort for the time being happened to be too fast and he had aroused the garrison by sounding reveille much before the usual hour Consequently the federal riflemen and artillerists were alert when Gordons storming party appeared I I ap-peared in front of the fort and came in contact with the pickets who spread I the alarm with the result that the hap less confederates were allowed to march almost u i to the muzzles of the guns A couple of volleys of canister and bullets annihilated the band Af ter that several attempts by other parties sent out by Gordon from Fort Stedman to silence Fort Haskell were repulsed with great slaughter The fate of that first storming party was a mystery which General Gordon I wished to have explained Many other I interesting points of the battle were I talked over Mr Grady being a most I attentive listener much to my sur I prise for at that time it was In the 70s young men of his age were not attracted by war stories THE MAJOR OX THE WHITEHORSE WHITE-HORSE General Gordon was obliged to bring our interview to a close in order to keep an engagement elsewhere and again to my surprise ilr Grady lingered lin-gered and pressed me for further details de-tails of the battle around Fort Haskell He said that In concert with General Gordon he had used every effort to find living participants among the veterans vet-erans of the south who had taken part in the struggle around that fort but that it appeared that none had survived sur-vived the stirring campaign of which the Fort Stedman sortie was the open I JL h I 1 e cb I fr I I t I < tnj f fM f 1 I iLjv 1 Ii = I 1r k W HERE YET TRY YOUR HAND I i i I ing battle Five Forks the pivotal one and Appomattox the sequel His interest I in-terest in the affair was so keen that at first I concluded that it was the I only battle he knew much about even I at secondhand and that he was something some-thing of an enthusiast not to say a i crank upon that subject He had upon his tongues end the full particulars particu-lars of the storming and capture of Fort Stedman and the batteries and found in me a most attentive listener But I was able to surprise him just as I had surprised General Gordon by an incident of the attack upon Fort Haskell I said to him that there I was one hero among Gordons men who deserved a monument for his gallantry that morning and I that it would I give me great pleasure j I to take part in erecting one as a trb I ute to American valor I mean the rider of the white horse said T looking i look-ing Mr Grady calmly in the face puzzled puz-zled to note that I touched upon something some-thing wholly new to him for the confederate con-federate white horseman of that dav was among the most vivid recollections of myself and my comrades It seemed strange to me that a southerner as well informed as Mr Grad had proved to j be upon that picturesque battle should not catch at once upon this reference I felt at the outset that It was like carrying coals to Newcastle to pour into the ears of a southerner an account of a deed of southern heroism upon they I battlefield the bravest I had ever seen and I supposed one of the best known in the enemys camps But Mr Gradys interest increased as I proceeded and I told the story as though I was the sole I witness Said I I mean that major i who rode a white horse back and forth between the lines after daylight when L bullets and shells were flying like hall I and finally led a small forlorn hone to silence our fort and save a line of retreat I re-treat for those of Gordons soldiers who I had survived the battle and given it up as hopeless Mr Grady heard this recital li sth Jei d cital with unfeigned eagerness and I I continued You already know from what General Gordon said here to me and has explained to you before that On that eventful morning a couple of hours after daylight he saw a vast federal army drawn up around the I breach he had made under cover of I f fsd IITtefo night and his little force hemmed in by a murderous fire from the right left and front To advance was Impossible To retreat even over the CO rods of space that Intervened between Fort Stedman where his men lay and their own works must cost him at least the half of his surviving batalllons There was only one gun In Fort Has kell bearing upon Fort Stedman and that was in the center of the wall facing fac-ing the high embankment and parapet of Fort Stedman behind which the confederates con-federates had taken shelter So lone as they remained there this gun could do them little harm but when they attempted at-tempted to get back to their own works they passed directly under the fire Of a gun in the angle of our fort which raked the ground ahead of them with spherical casea terrible missile at that range almost as deadly as canister can-ister The confederate sharpshooters back in their old lines kept up a fire upon the angle hoping to silence that piece but without effect Our gunners were Germans and the chief of artillery artil-lery of our brigade a German major stood upon the banquette field glass in hand with head and shoulders above the parapet and directed every discharge dis-charge of the gun My company was stationed around that angle and after firing savagely for some time the major suddenly told his gunners to cease and called out to the riflemen who were nearest the embrasure Shoot the man on the white horse 11 was summoned away at that time by duties elsewhere but I returned a few moments afterward to find the ece again In action the major at his peat and just as I reached the spot the sergeant ser-geant of our company crouching so as to keep his head elow the parapet moved back from the opening of the embrasure and handing me his rifle said Here Vet try your hand See if you can bring down that man on the white horse I had a reputation for marksmanship and seizing the rifle advanced close to the embrasure where I1 could take aim with my head somewhat some-what sheltered and not be harmed by the flash of the cannon barking at mv elbow A hasty glance at the ground in front of Fort Stedman showed me that there was a stream of confederate soldiers In very much of a rout pouring out of the captured fort back to their own lines and that the shots from the gun by which I stood plowed through the mass with fearful effect A man on a white horee with his face turned toward Fort Stedman was trying to urge and guide his frantic steed toward that fort Behind him were 200 or 200 soldiers in gray struggling after through the retreating mass Then The-n hite horse was plunging and leaping so wildly I that I found It impossible to draw a bead upon his rider But I kept my eyes upon him across the rifle barrel moving the muzzle to cover him as he moved The smoke from the gun beside me occasionally cut off my vision but I was not long In discovering discover-ing the true situation The man on the I white horse had brousht up from the I old confederate lines a handful of faring far-ing men to charge upon the batterr which was slaughtering his retreating comrades in the hope of saving the many by sacrificing the few I had heard of that white horseman several times in the course of the morning He had been seen again and again gallop ing back and forth over the narrow field which was the scene of this strange combat For all that we read of daring deeds in war such Incidents are few and far between at least tnt was my experience during threeyears service In the army of the Potomac I had heard of such things in thrillinc j accounts of olden wars but had come I to the conclusion tlrefe they were i Imaginary pictures To have such a I spectacle under my own eyes and almost al-most at the end of my rifle barrel was I something startling TO BRAVE TO DIE SO I I fully Intended to shoot the hero and was waiting for the best chance so as to be sure not to throw awav a I shot but as I waited he moved on out of range cf the cannon firehis men around him in solid and defiant pbilanx paused for an Instant then faced his steed toward us as though to advance and strike Our wall with the flank of the battery thus avoiding Its fire While my eye was still upon him ha pointed with his sword toward I I to-ward the murderous cannon which 1 just at that instant sent another shot I crashing through the ranks of the retreating I re-treating men in gray Ills horse arose majestically upon his hind feet and I for a moment there was a martial equestrian statue carved out against ate lines The sergeant himself was terribly wounded a few moments afterward after-ward and from that time on to the end he had no thought but for his own miseries In looking over the parapet to keep the run of the fight which was I of course very brief I caught one or two glimpses of the man on the whitehorse white-horse riding through the storm of I bullets which greeted his advance Soon all was over and our men were j I I sending ui cheers of victory Rejoicing I Rejoic-Ing with the rest I ergot all about the rider of the white horse until I heard srrne of the men discussing the particulars partic-ulars of his death When we went outside out-side of the walls to examine the battlefield battle-field we found the body of an officer wearing the Insignia of a major lying within 30 feet of our parapet with his head toward our wall his sword firmly I I held in a death grip ant ting toward to-ward the gun which he I given Ilife and that of many bra men to I silence He had been shot from t Tk I i J n = t yr 10 f ti t p ca r + ml w r r tw a i t I 1 r l r i tHIS t HI HIS HOrSE AROSE MAJESTICALLY I the background of battle smoke bristling brist-ling parapets and indistinct masses of warring men I was charmed by the sight yes carried away by my admiration admir-ation for the hero who was the central figure of it all I lowered my piece discharged dis-charged It at randcm and crawled back from the embrasure to be met by the ergeants eager cry Did you fetch him No said I he is too brave to die so Whether or not it occurred tome to-me at the time I have sinew thought that I must have had a feeling that it would be Inglorious to snuff out that flame of peerless courage with a pitiful nelet cC end The sergeant gave me a ook of mingled min-gled pity and contempt He had tried his own hand and sent several of his best shots one after the other to the embrasure to try to bring down the man en the white horse and of course he felt chagrined to be obliged to confess con-fess to the gallant artillerymen who were so valiantly fighting that gun that he had no marksman equal to the emergency emer-gency However the incident was soon forgotten for we had a hot time In repelling re-pelling the charge led by the man on the white horse and in repairing the damage caused by a fierce fire poured Into our cornar from the old coned saddle and after his fall the horse doubtless already smarting under many wounds had turned and attempted to leap a ditch and parapet nearby In that act he was killed by a shell which passed ccmpletely through his body My auditor had arisen and was pacing the floor when I finished the account of those last moments cI the hero I stopped not because there was no more to say to fill out the dramatic picture but because that I saw that the pressure of emotion upon Mr Grady was becoming intense Yielding at last to his feelings he seized my hand with a look Into my face better bet-ter Imagined than pcrtrayed and giving solemn emphasis to every word exclaimed You spared my fathers j fa-thers life in batte My father he I continued after a pause served with I Gordon and was killed that morning and I have spentthree years since then i trying to learn the circumstances of his death but no one could tell me He I was just the man so his friends say to I undertake voluntarily the leadership of a forlorn I hone In the crisis of battle i tlnth tet ISw I I Such a deed at that time was but a passing Incident when the mind of all I were filled with regret at the failure of j I the enterprise the loss of bosom friends I I and efforts to save as many as possible pos-sible of those who had survived and I to relieve the distress of the wounded A soldier can understand that After the battle Gordons corps was continually I con-tinually fighting until the end came at ApPQmattox two weeks later Many who got out ot Fort Stedman safe and I sound that morning were killed in the trenches while attempting to defend Petersburg or at Five Forks or in that I running fight to Appomattox courthouse I court-house My father sometimes rode a i white horse a favorite which he never took In until after the others had been I shot down under him This much J 1 learned from General Gordon and other companions in arms It was not necessary for me to go into all the details of the situation in order to impress Mr Grady with the i sublime courage displayed by the rider I of the white horse He knew from his i close studv of the battle that the ground between Fort Stedman and Fort i Haskell where the gallant fellow rode Ito I I I to his death was swept by a fire Its 1 whole length on the flank as well as j from our rifles in front That any i i I I number of members of that forlorn j I 1 hope should have lived would have i i been marvelous that Its leader BO conspicuously j con-spicuously mounted should have survived sur-vived would have been a miracle Men I i who saw him during his last moments I said that his horde could be seen plunging i plung-ing wildly as though smarting under battle shots and the form of the leader i i was seen to twist and swerve as though < I struck by flying missiles At last as i he raised himself erect in the saddle j i and pointed with his sword toward the I gun which had been the coal he j pitched forward to the earth and the j struggle was over There was scarcely j i a dozen men at his back when he went down Mr Grady followed up my story i with one of his own reviewing the I romance of his life a romance which I I began with this very forlorn hope of Gordons Said he When the remnants rem-nants of the Georgia battalions came back to the old state from Appomattox I went to find my fathers veterans and get their account of his death for news of his fate had already reached us In our far away home But I could not find a single one of the men he had led into battle that day Then alone and friendless a green country boy of 10 years 1 went to General Gordon an entire en-tire stranger to me and together we began a search all over the south for some of these men who had gone on the charge toward Fort Haskell The phase of the battle alone was a mystery to General Gordon and all survivors of the day But we have received no response ur > to this time and can only believe I that all men are dead However I found In Gordon the best friend a young man could have He has been the father to the orphan of one of his soldiers whom he loved and over I whose fate he mourned Gordon gave I me my start in the world and all through his career as United States I senator and governor he has been my friend adviser and helper I GRADYS GRATITUDE There was much crossquestioning by Mr Grady I told him that we had learned from southerners under the flag of truce which followed the battle that the dead hero was a Georgian and that he held the rank of major And now that you have given me the story of the Georgia majors death concluded Mr Grady hlC you can tell me of his burial spot my sad search of these many years will be I ended It happened that I had been placed I in charge of the detail to gather UP the dead and clear ocr lines for further I action after that exciting morning battle bat-tle and I knew a soldier living In New York the city where this Interview took place who had helped to deliver the bodies of the dead confederates to their I friends I hunted him up and It transpired trans-pired that he had carried the dead major ma-jor to the flag of truce From him I I learned that the men to whom he no livered the body were seen to move away into Lees lines and in the direction direc-tion of the old church cemeter which was a conspicuous mark on the land f 1 seape within view of our fort Wan 7 any name spoken when you handed the h I i body to the Georgian soldiers I inquired 1 in-quired I Yes was the prompt answer and t remembered It distinctly for year It I I The veteran then ran over several I I I i names similar In sound to the on 1 borne by the young Georgian He cams I so near to 1t that it did not seem tome to-me to be a leading question when I 1 said Could It have been Grady Thats It exactly said my man Major Grady and dead I his soldiers I exclaimed as soon as they saw us I bring his limp form toward the flag of truce They made a fuss over him Some further particulars I learned and I I communicated to Mr Grady to aid In the Identification of the remains should j i there be any uncertainty upon that j I point He was killed by a bullet thnc gh the right temple and upon I his breast beneath the coat was a I Simple device of steel armor sometimes i worn by mounted soldiers as a life preserver That armor bore Innumerable Innumer-able dents showing that he had been a target for many clever marksmen but the fatal bullet had at last sped tom to-m unprotected spot Mr Grady was so overjoyed at the result of our chance meeting that I have always believed he long had nursed the morbid suspicion that possibly 1 possi-bly his father had not borne himself noNe in that battle in fact was among the missing and not dead and that his army companions knowing know-Ing it were reluctant to give pain to his family by telling the truth It often happens that after a man has made a glorious record as a soldier some temporary aberration of conduct for which he may not be morally responsible will throw a cloud over his glorious past To a boy who could not understand the varying fortunes of war it must have seemed strange that the fate nf one so well known as i Major Grady the friend of Gordon and a hero among his Georgians should t i be shrouded in mystery From that i I interview I went away with greater I i pride in the fact that I had withheld my shot that morning than over any IJf ftor lrI7ethan i I soldierly I act of mv life I And now all this furnishes an PX I planation for that otherwise amblsu I our passage in Mr Gradys famous I New England banquet speech the sole i i reference to family or lineage in anv I 1 of his oral or written productions i Speaking for oihe young men of the i new south the traditions they revere and the sentiments which Inspire them he said hIn my native town of Athens Is a monument that crowns the central hilla plain white shaft Deep I cut into Its shining side is a name dear to me above tne names of menthat of I a brave and simple man who died in I brave and simple faith Not for all the glories of New England from I Plymouth rock all the way would T exchange the heritage he left me In his soldiers death To the foot of that I I shall send my children to reverence I him who ennobled their name with his I heroic blood |