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Show wmm wssssm mm 4 CM N the records of the . war department appears the name of Henry B I Clitz, who was a majoi PJj in the regular service Jj( ) and who rose to the rani ( y) of a brigadier general ol "rri"" volunteers while in the (V, Union army during the Civil war. Old army of-X of-X fleers remember Clitz -LS well, but possibly millions mil-lions of civilians hav well nigh forgotten him. After the short official story of his service written on the now time-stained paper hidden away in a vault of the war depart ment, these words appear: "Mysteriously "Mysteri-ously disappeared in the year 1888." The disappearance of Henry B. Clitz is one of the mysteries of army life. On other records In the war department de-partment are brief official lines, also on time-stained paper, telling of the career of Jasper A. Maltby, colonel of the Forty-fifth Illinois infantry more familiarly known in the darker days of the country's , history as the "Wash- I bum's Lead Mine ("I Regiment." Maltby 's - li name was brought -back not long ago sharply to memory by the death of his widow in St. Luke's hospital, Chicago. She was a little snow-hair- I ed woman Who had borne life's burdens for Just the time al- I I lotted by the Psalm- ' ' 1st. During the days " t that this woman lay y-r" at the hospital of V he Beloved Physl- - 5 clan, if her eyes wan- C dered about the walls of her room. It is probable that for the I first time in many I WATS wVusTl wtlhln I !cords the --J , v&ks- A- r0rCMV rtment appears 'i'ty' "''''X member Clitz ' civniins7 have SvC JA , J 1 It'"' jr", fMS ISJi .After the short sS. "A,V J Wf0 war depart " , ; vSggJf ?J M&M pear: "Mysteri- ' f - Henry B. Clitz " ) ) II J jlPLJ l ?V Tney say most desperate enterprises of the entire war. l'rV0j I CSt'tfty Major Clitz There are today surviving members of the If I fSA I t& I fought that Forty-fifth Illinois in whose veins the words "Fort ShPA I r&t I day 3S he dld Hil1 Mine" w111 make the blood tingle. It was fvt' r Vf at Cerro Gor- only a week before the Fourth on which Pember- -fli t tkf " f do- only a lit- ton surrendered the Confederate city. In Logan's K&ffifrf t fi2tM tle more so. front lay Fort Hill. It was decided at a council fc&f-if jafjyj- L fiC'ilj The regulars of the generals that its sapping and mining and L fi'-Kf fflf M-'f fMl resisted stren- the subsequent seizing and holding of the em- " - Mff t!y0a s-1 1 uously" for an brasure made by the explosion would be of tre- E-" r J-ia ' hour or two. mendous moral and strategical value to the Union I -jv-H'l -w'f Finally some cause. The place was commanded by Confeder- iWr-3MM''t J of the men ate artillery and by sharpshooters in a hundred L SSfirt 8aw Major rifle pits. If was known that if the explosion of y aji-3L? Clitz go down. Fort Hill was a success that few of the men who . f yrr iO A big wall of rushed Into the crevasses could hope to come out I J I f'. gray was fall- alive. It would be what the Saxons called a deed ' ' lng on them of derring-do. Owing to the limited space tp be WCWJy A S?AL?OA TyCStZTfOA3 Just then, and occupied only a single regiment was to be named jH .AjVjE" 07y many others to jump into the great yawning hole after the ex-went ex-went down plosion and to hold it against the hell fire of the any room chosen by her as an abiding place, they failed to . rest upon the folds of an American flag. The stories of Generals Gen-erals Clitz and Maltby Malt-by were stories of sterling patriotism, of action and of wounds received in the discharge dis-charge of duty. Mystery Mys-tery has added its interest in-terest to the life's story of Major Clitz, perhaps one should say to his death's story, though there is always a possibility possibil-ity that at a great age nie major some- 200. They say Major Clitz fought that day as he did at Cerro Gordo, Gor-do, only a little lit-tle more so. The regulars resisted strenuously' stren-uously' for an hour or two. Finally some of the men saw Major Clitz go down. A big wall of gray was falling fall-ing on them just then, and many others went down most desperate enterprises of the entire war. There are today surviving members of the Forty-fifth Illinois in whose veins the words "Fort Hill Mine" will make the blood tingle. It was only a week before the Fourth on which Pember-ton Pember-ton surrendered the Confederate city. In Logan's front lay Fort Hill. It was decided at a council of the generals that its sapping and mining and the subsequent seizing and holding of the embrasure em-brasure made by the explosion would be of tremendous tre-mendous moral and strategical value to the Union cause. The place was commanded by Confederate Confeder-ate artillery and by sharpshooters in a hundred rifle pits. If was known that if the explosion of Fort Hill was a success that few of the men who rushed Into the crevasses could hope to come out alive. It would be what the Saxons called a deed of derring-do. Owing to the limited space tp be occupied only a single regiment was to be named to jump into the great yawning hole after the explosion 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 enterprise enter-prise as there were colonels of regiments in Grant's army. The choice fell on Jasper A. Maltby Malt-by 'and his following of Illinois boys. The time came for the explosion. The Forty-fifth Forty-fifth lay grimly awaiting the charge into death's pit. The signal was given; there came a heavy roar and a mighty upheaval. Silence had barely fallen before there rose one great reverberating yell, and the Lead Mine Regiment, led by its colonel, col-onel, Jasper A. Maltby, with his lieutenant colonel, col-onel, . Malancthon Smith, at his elbow, hurled itself into the smoking crater. The lieutenant colonel col-onel was shot through the head and mortally wounded before his feet had fairly touched the pit's 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 entire en-tire regiment should be annihilated. Certain men in the pit were tolled off to answer the sharpshooter's sharp-shooter's fire and to make it hot for the cannon-aders cannon-aders in the Confederate battery. They did what they could, but it availed little to save their com. 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 a protection by the surviving soldiers. The joists were placed lengthwise and dirt was quickly piled about them. Colonel Maltby Malt-by helped the men to lodge the beams. He went to one side of the crater where there was no elevation. ele-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 it up and forward into place The bullets bul-lets chipped the woodwork and spat in the sand all about him.. One Confederate gunner of ai-til 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 death's hole tenable Then they picked up their colonel He was ttill alive, though the surgeon shortly afterward after-ward said that it would be hard work to cnum 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 a brigadier general of volunteers for conspicuous personal gallantry in the face of the enemy. A week later Grant's victorious forces marched into Vlcksburg b. WftnsilV Sme conditin still has left in him a r- -jOtbe, .spirit of life which moved him to soldWv deeds. Rectntly a brigadier general of the regular service, many years retired, came to Washington. In the lobby of a hotel he met a veteran as grizzled griz-zled and wrinkled as he, but still of an upright physical bearing. The general looked at the man a moment actually aghast and then with words that came out in the disorder of a "route step" gasped: "John I heard you were dead. I would as soon have thought of meeting Clitz." The two had been subalterns In Clitz's regiment regi-ment during the Civil war and after, and had loved him. It was perhaps the flashing thought of an anniversary of a disappearance at hand that sent the returned soldier's thought to Major Clitz when in the lobby of a Washington hotel he met the former comrade, who he had heard was dead. The army archives bear no stranger records than that of this case of General Henry B. Clitz he was only a major, however, when he won distinction by his gallantry. It is twenty-three twenty-three years ago now that Major Clitz was lost. Twenty-three years, but a man may be found after twenty-three years. Major Henry B. Clitz, Twelfth infantry, TJ. 8. A., was once dead and buried and was alive again, was lost, and the other word that should natur- Vally fit here is either yet to be supplied, or forever for-ever is o remain unwritten. There are scores of soldiers today, old soldiers but once a soldier "always a soldier who, in the memory' of what happened after Gaines Mills, think that one day they may again clasp this side of the grave the hand o Comrade Clitz. Henry B. Clitz of Michigan entered West Point In the t'Car--1841, graduating four years after. He was 'a, schoolmate of Grant, McClellan, Sheridan Sheri-dan and Burnslde. Clitz went into the Mexican war and won praise on the field and a brevet rank afterward for conspicuous gallantry at Cerro Cer-ro Gordo. Clitz was a fighter. He proved this fact every time he had a chance, and during his forty-five years of service he had chances in plenty. When the Civil war had been on for a time Clitz found himself major of the Twelfth regulars. regu-lars. He was transferred to that outfit from the Third, another fighting regiment. It came along toward the time of Mechanicsvllle' and Gaines Mills. The Twelfth and the Fourteenth were lying ly-ing pretty close together. When the Gaines Mills battle was on and war's hurricane was at its height the Twelfth and the Fourteenth were given a position to hold. The two regiments were attacked at-tacked by overwhelming numbers, but the numbers num-bers weren't overwhelming for a loilg time. There wasn't any retreat In the make-up of those two regiments of regular Infantry. The wave of battle simply had to come down on them and engulf them. Afterward whei General Sykes wrote a report about the Tweltth and Fourteenth and the fight that they put up, he said the ranks of the Twelfth were "decimated." General Sykes had probably never studied "English Lessons for English People." Unless things have changed, decimated means the cutting out of one In ten. This Is the way the Twelfth was "decimated." It vent into the fight with 470 men; came out with too. When the fight was over, and afterward, when some order came out of the chaotic hell, this report re-port was turned in by General Sykes: "The Twelfth and Fourteenth were attacked by overwhelming over-whelming numbers. The ranks were decimated, and Major Clitz was severely if not fatally injured. in-jured. Around his fate, still shrouded in mystery, mys-tery, hangs the painful apprehension that a career ca-reer so noble, no soldierly, so brave, has terminated termin-ated on that field whose honor he so gallantly upheld." Major Clitz went on the list of the dead and what was left of his regiment mourned him as few soldiers are mourned. Suitable orders were issued lamenting the death of this hero of Cerro Gordo and Gaines Mills, but before the period of the real mourning was over, though the official find nad been over for months, the dead came to life again. Major Clitz had been shot through both legs and in one or two other places, but on his showing a few signs of life the Confederates made a prisoner of him and sent him to Libby. Major Clitz was paroled. When he went back into the service again and when the war was over he put in twenty years campaigning on the plains. In 1885 he retired after nearly half a century of service, and went to live In Detroit, Mich. Two years later his old command, with which he had stood in the bullet storm at Gaines Mills, passed through Detroit on its way to take station at the posts of the great lakes. There were not many then in the Twelfth who were In it in the old days, but It was the same outfit with the same old tattered regimental banners. Major (then General) Clitz met the command and old memories stirred him to tears. The Twelfth cheered Its old bfflcer arid then Detroit was left behind. Was it the stirring of old memories or what was it? His old comrades in arms had been gone but a little while when Major Clitz went to the railroad station from which the train bearing the soldiers pulled out, and there purchased a railroad rail-road ticket for a lake city which held a garrison of United States troops. From the hour of the purchase of that ticket no one has been found, soldier or civilian, tp say that he has ever seen Major Henry B. Clitz. The army records give In detail the story of his gallantry in battle, and at the end of the shining record are these words. "Mysteriously disappeared in the year 1S88." There was no mystery of disappearance in the case of Brigadier General Jasper A. Maltby. He died as the result of wounds received in action. His widow who survived him many years and who died at St. Luke's hospital In Chicago Tneld the ' American flag and her husband's memory as the most cherished things in life. Neither was ever long absent from her mind. How many men are there today, bar a few old soldiers, to whom the name Jasper A. Maltby would mean anything unless it were coupled, as is the above, with some specific Information? Yet this man Jasper A. Maltby was chosen by General Grant, on the advice of McPherson and Logan, to lead, with his single regiment, the most desperate enterprise at the siege of Vlcksburg, and, as some historians have It, one of the three .-. . . i ' 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. Afterward a flag and a precious memory were rarely absent from the life which finally flickered out when the white-haired little widow died at St. Luke's hospital, Chicago. |