BLOWING UP OF FORT HILL.
ALONG the lines of Vicksburg during the siege, there was no stronger point than Fort Hill. The land stood high, and the approach was almost perpendicular at some points. In the assignment of troops to positions, General John A. Logan’s division was placed in front of Fort Hill. General Logan was a man of energy, and a great fighter. With the consent of his superiors in command, he planned to mine Fort Hill. The work was begun at a distance in the rear, behind a bluff, so as to hide the operation from the Confederates. General Logan’s engineers, with scientific precision, directed the tunnel toward Fort Hill. There were weary days and nights of digging before they reached the foundation of the fort. But there came to the ears of the Confederates at last, even amid the thunder of the cannon and the screaming of shells, the sounds of the mining. Night after night they listened with their ears to the ground to the sound of the Union picks. The Confederates soon began to countermine, and it was not long before thetoilers in the Union tunnel heard the thud of the Confederate picks nearly over their heads. They were too high to strike the Union tunnel, but it was evident that no time must be lost in blowing up the fort. Tons of powder were carried in, and one bright afternoon about two o’clock the slow fuse was lighted and the tunnel was cleared. The regular firing of the battle was going on. There was nothing in the movements of the army to indicate that anything unusual was about to occur.
As I was driving around the lines that day, I met General McPherson and his staff, riding at full speed. Halting, he said,—
“You are going in the wrong direction. Fort Hill will be blown up in a few minutes. Better drive to General Logan’s headquarters.”
“Oh, no,” I answered; “I’ll be near enough to see the terrible tragedy. It will be heart-breaking.”
They galloped on; but I lingered along the roadway in sight of Fort Hill.
Suddenly a terrific explosion shook the foundations of the earth, and the heavy timbers of the fort and tons of earth were lifted skyward. The next moment the dust and smoke hid everything from view. General Logan and his men pushed into the breach, hoping to effect an entrance before the Confederates had recovered from the shock; but a glittering wall of bayonets met them,and they were pushed back inch by inch. All that afternoon and evening hand-grenades were tossed back and forth as in a game of baseball; but an entrance could not be made.
A strange incident occurred at the blowing up of Fort Hill, which is perhaps without a parallel. There was at the time of the explosion a slave boy about eighteen years old working with others in the Confederate tunnel. This boy was lifted up with timbers and tons of earth, and thrown into the Union lines. He fell among the men of Williams’s Battery of Ohio. When the men ran to pick him up, he exclaimed with terror, “Is you Yanks goin’ to kill me?”
“Oh, no; we don’t kill colored folks,” was the prompt reply.
“Oh, golly, I went up free miles.”
“Could you see anything?” was asked.
“When I’se goin’ up,” he said, “’most eberything was comin’ down, and when I’se comin’ down ’most eberything was goin’ up.”
“Who commanded Fort Hill?” inquired one of the gunners.
“My massa,” replied the boy.
“Where is your massa now?”
“’Fore God, genl’men, I can’t tell you; he was goin’ up when I’se comin’ down.”
Pictures of the boy were preserved by Williams’s Battery, taken soon after the explosion, showing the boy in the patched tow garmentshe wore in his wild flight for liberty. General Logan kept him at his headquarters for some time.
I saw him there many times. After the war he went to Washington with them I think, and remained some years.