OCR Text |
Show ' w o (Hf 0 99 ,. 2rsaa , . fc - v A 4 , -A -it&n V ' , r s - - I -jM Historic Crater and Entrance to Federal Tunelfg" ---I-- 4 . jTittt Part of the Tunnel Sy3tem.atPeter5burq B EI.MO SCOTT WATSON , : . ' A'rK "Kt montli tliere gathered 5 s , N ( S7 ' nenr I'etersbiirg, Va., a great v i , ' vS ' " v 1 crowd ot PeI)le to take part lu the ( ; y - t t 1 J s ? . ( 1 .bJ dedieutlon of a new national mil- j 1 j j MTt Y 'iS, Hary park. Among the public ree- '4 1 t f J i'V ) 1 Nr. ,v I VUfcr reatlon areas set aside in this ' faf A 1 I ' ij ' ' f x ? d V -irSf-i country by the feiIurul govern- At ! "w U I - 1 v -Mll ment a national military park en- If U. v? 4 HV.hV'O -XiL-j,Zj Joys the distinction of having a 1 H ; I I . I- S- .H-ts i' ? ZSZp&'W: double purpose. It is a memorial " - , w , i, ' v i'ni.V' '"? 'X Saj to the historic event which oc- " " l i i -' " , I USISS curred there, a patriotic shrine 7 J , k) frUJ " - jrL ,f to which Americans can come for '-' -- i ' J-f K? Tt v l renewed Inspiration by standing npon the soil - - B made sacred by the sacrifices of previous gon- "yTL?rT!wTS-' -i erations of Americans there; and it is a mill- Wj jw - , " v,7 - Ss-H.rv tary classroom and an outdoor war laboratory wfiL, - rpr.mnT,;., ar where future defenders of the nation may study k?T Ml , rVderal Fort Sfedman the lessons In military science which will help mf federal Xort Oteaman them In that defense. X , V , V . I The Petersburg national military park is the A$f t. fv? J? fA ! 'V V Is fifth and latest of such areas to be established H'fl,- t . v ri w'Vy ""i but few of the others are more interesting from " Vk " f 4 ,H j ""T . 3 either point of view. It derives Its historic "f M 6' nHiC llrS 4 J$- r interest from the fact that here occurred the , f j3 1 f , , .vfll fel dying struggle of the Confederacy, for when if I I ( H!u f 4 ' f Ml Vj ' 1 I TV'TJ the Union army broke through the Confederate fMiLv i&4V - P1 (llll J lines at Fort Gregg on April 2, 1SG5, this vie- K, Mf . kr"4.!iii tory ended 9 months and 12 days of siege, "the l'?3'y I - -- ' li. longest siege on American soil," and It spelled N X J'Vl " i " - z, 4tsi death to the Confederate cause. Richmond, the "5. ? " . . , Z-'-'WT. heart of the Confederacy, was cut off from the " 7 " m 'vV r ' ' -??T& rest of the South when Petersburg, the head , , T - " s - ri&l$p$7 of navigable tidewater and the focus of the - - ; 4 - 5 ';J'W twara.'c. M,'vJJ-v' various railroads and highways which bronght " ; , , v- Gonfederate Forti&CatiOU supplies and reinforcements to the capital, fell. P'lwisS'S "RatTprv S After that Lee's surrender to Grant at Appamat- N--f' : ' . -" c ' tor was Inevitable, even though It was delayed :iMfXpMl groups could be seen running towards the smok- seven days. ---SiiMM0ifX0 Ing Crater. Burnside and Ledlie had failed As a field for the military student the Peters- ' ,."A.y(,Ar to clear their own defense obstacles and to pre- burg area Is important because it has in a fine pare passages out of and over their own deep 4 B EI.MO SCOTT WATSON f :J. ATE last month there gathered 7 i:- -fc$3 near Petersburg, Va., a great 1 crowd of people to take part In the . ( i -X-i dedication of a new national mil-itary mil-itary park. Among the public rec- PJ't'f reatlon areas set aside in this TKfiti country by the federal govern-3J govern-3J ment a national military park en--rCXA Joys the distinction of having a double purpose. It is a memorial to tlie historic event which oc-Lti-'-nV-Va curred there, a patriotic shrine to which Americans can come for renewed Inspiration by standing upon the soil made sacred by the sacrifices of previous generations gen-erations of Americans there; and it Is a military mili-tary classroom and an outdoor war laboratory where future defenders of the nation may study the lessons In military science which will help them In that defense. The Petersburg national military park Is the fifth and latest of such areas to be established but few of the others are more interesting from either point of view. It derives its historic Interest from the fact that here occurred the dying struggle of the Confederacy, for when the Union army broke through the Confederate lines at Fort Gregg on April 2, 1SG5, this victory vic-tory ended 9 months and 12 days of siege, "the longest siege on American soil," and It spelled death to the Confederate cause. Richmond, the heart of the Confederacy, was cut off from the rest of the South when Petersburg, the head of navigable tidewater and the focus of the various railroads and highways which bronght supplies and reinforcements to the capital, fell. After that Lee's surrender to Grant at Appamat-tor Appamat-tor was Inevitable, even though It was delayed seven days. As a field for the military student the Petersburg Peters-burg area Is important because it has In a fine state of preservation more than 25 miles of fortification with thousands of feet of tunnels still Intact. But the most important fact Is the similarity between this campaign of more than half a century ago and the principal campaign In the more recent World war. For United States army ofllcers are the authority for the statement that "the military operations connected con-nected with the siege of Petersburg contained every feature of strategy and tactics that began be-gan In the race from the Marne to the English Channel between the Allied armies and the forces of the Central Powers, each seeking to outflank the other and ending when the Allies burst through the German lines in the Argonne forest just as the Federals crumpled the Con-, federate lines at Petersburg." But to the average American, unfamiliar with the Intricacies of military science, the principal appeal of the new national military park, now comprising some 201 acres with the possibility of later having a total area of 510 acres, lies In the numerous "human interest" angles to the story of this siege and the battles which preceded and followed It, in the tales of heroism on the part of both the men who wore the Blue and tliose who wore the Gray which are conjured con-jured up by a visit to this historic place. Early In 1SG4 Grant, balked In every attempt to defeat Lee north of the Confederate capital and thus make good the war-cry of "On to Richmond!" which had been raised In the earliest earli-est days of the war, decided to swing around, cross the James river and strike Richmond from the south. But Petersburg, "the back door of the Confederacy" stood in the way. The first battle In the fighting around Petersburg, Peters-burg, although It was little more than a skirmish, skir-mish, furnishes one of the cherished traditions of the lost cause and supplied an Incident In which all Americans can take pride. At that time Petersburg was garrisoned by Wise's veteran brigade but with it stood the Petersburg Peters-burg Home Guard, composed of every old man and young boy who was able to lift a musket and squeeze a trigger, and It was to this little group less than 200 strong that the glory of June 9, 1S64 goes. On that date one of Grant's subordinates, Gen. B. F. Butler, sent General Gillmore with 8,000 Infantry and General Kautz with 1.500 cavalry to "capture Petersburg and destroy the Appamattox Bridge." The cavalry led the advance and Immediately struck a stiff resistance resist-ance from the Home Guards. For some time the 200 held the 1,500 at bay. then with half their force dead or disabled the Home Guards were forced back upon tlie advancing Confederate Confed-erate regulars. But they had held up Kautz's advance long enough to save Petersburg. Again a week later the city might have been taken but for blundering upon the part of the Union generals which resulted in a fearful loss of their men and led to the prolonged siege of nine months Instead of precipitating a running run-ning fight between Lee, retiring to the west, and Grant in hot pursuit. During the nine months when Petersburg was Invested skirmishes skir-mishes occurred almost daily, totaling some 150 minor engagements. The most famous of these was the spectacular explosion of the Crater, one of the most dramatic incidents of the whole war. The following account of it is taken from a history of the operations around Petersburg prepared by Capt. JefTry Montague of the United Unit-ed States army: "There was a regiment of Pennsylvanians in r.urnside's corps, the Forty-eighth Infantry, mostly coal miners, and their commander, a mining engineer, Lieut.-Col. Henry Pleasants, in the latter part of June thought it would start something If It could make a breach In the Confederate line about ISO yards In front of him, by mining Elliott's salient and blowing It up. The Idea went forward through channels, received Meade's and Grant's approval, and Burnside got orders to put it into effect and exploit the opening. Grant thought enough troops could be poured through the crevasse to capture Petersburg. "Ferrero's negro division was being trained by Burnside to lead the assault through the breach to be caused by the mine, but Meade and Grant disapproved this and Burnside had the storm division chosen by 'drawing straws.' The lot fell to Gen. James H. Ledlie, commanding command-ing the First division of Burnslde's corps. This, it turned out, foredoomed the enterprise to what Grant in his Memoirs called a 'stupendous failure.' "It was brought out then and by a congressional congres-sional investigation later, that Ledlie's 'bad habits' and consequent unreliability were well known in the Union army. It was disclosed that Ledlie stayed behind in a dug-out 'drinking' throughout the Crater action and could not be induced to go out and try to extricate the remnants rem-nants of his division from the deathtrap in which they were being torn to shreds piecemeal. piece-meal. "Ferrero, following with the negro division, joined Ledlie in the 'bomb proof while his troops hurried on, soon to be huddling with Ledlie's In the fire-swept Crater until all that could of both divisions recoiled before the rushing rush-ing Confederate counter-charge which reestablished reestab-lished their line. "Pleasants commenced work at 12 noon, June 25, 1SG4, in the ravine between the hostile lines, with improvised tools and materials and on July 17 the main tunnel, 510.8 feet in length, was completed. Sounds of Confederate countermining counter-mining caused Pleasants to stop. Work upon the right lateral gallery at the end of the tunnel was begun at 6 p. m. July IS. regardless of audible audi-ble enemy counter-mining, and work on both right and left laterals was rushed to completion comple-tion July 23. A total of 1S,000 cubic feet of earth was excavated. "Four tons of powder were placed In the laterals lat-erals July 27 and the miners' tamping was completed com-pleted July 28. Pleasants was ordered to explode ex-plode the mine at 3:30 a. m. July 30, and lighted the fuse at 3 :15 a. m. "The mine failed to explode. Lieut. Jacob Douty and Sergt. Henry Rees, who volunteered to go in and see why, found the fire had stopped where fuse lengths had been tied together. They spliced fresh ends, lighted the fuse again, and at 16 minutes before 5 a. m. the 320 kegs, containing con-taining 25 pounds each, blew up. "Witnesses felt the earth quake but heard nothing beyond a dull detonation. What they saw, however, was enough. The air above the spot was filled with a mounting cloud of earth, men, guns, planks and fragments. Confederates near the Crater ran in every direction, the waiting Union legions shrank back, to escape the shower of debris. Both sides gazed astounded, astound-ed, appalled. A great hole appeared In the ground, 200 feet long, GO feet wide, 25 feet deep, smoking, dust-shrouded, horrible. "Union artillerymen recovered first. Almost Immediately they began laying down a fiery barrage on both sides of the breach. Five minutes later, blue soldiers in ones, twos and groups could be seen running towards the smoking smok-ing Crater. Burnside and Ledlie had failed to clear their own defense obstacles and to prepare pre-pare passages out of and over their own deep trenches and their storm troops were disordered and delayed accordingly. Not a shot was fired from the Confederate side at first, but by the time the Crater was filled by a huddled mob of foremost men, the Confederate rifles were cracking from flanks and front, hostile guns were throwing gusts of canister, and it was fatal to go beyond that scene of hideous death. "Two hundred and seventy-six Confederates, officers and men, were killed by the explosion of Pleasants' mine. Gallant officers of the Union 'line' sprang out of the death pit and led a few of their bravest men as far as 100 yards beyond 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. Towards 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 'fiasco' cost Grant 4,400 men. At about 2 p. m., the Confederates of Mahone's division held the Crater and all the horrors that lay in and about It." After Grant's failure at the Crater, the siege of Petersburg dragged on through the fall and winter of 1864. Finally in the spring of 1S65 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, Sted-man, the remains of which are one of the outstanding out-standing points of interest in the new national military park today. Captain Montague describes de-scribes the action there and its results as follows 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 overpowered over-powered the Union picket line in front of Stedman Sted-man around 3 a. m., March 25, 1S65, and were closely followed by the storming party, In three columns, one aimed straight at Stedman, the other two at its flanking batteries. The sleeping sleep-ing garrisons were captured or fled in a nightmare night-mare of dismay. "Grant and Meade were at City Point to greet President Lincoln, who had come down to attend at-tend a grand review of the Army of the Potomac, 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 TIdball to concentrate artillery upon the breach, Willcox to recapture the last works and Hartranft to concentrate his division, in reserve, and support Willcox. "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. m. Hartranft received an order to take his assembling division divi-sion and recapture Stedman, now swarming with the enemy. He had the charge sounded 15 minutes later and 'in no time.' as one writer put it, tlie 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." ( by Western Newspaper Unlfto.) |