Brenham Daily Banner. (Brenham, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 15, 1892 Page: 4 of 4
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' IN THE LAST DITCH.
CONFEDERATE DEFENSE OF FORT
GREGG, APRIL, 1865.
A Motley Gsrriioii of a Co■ pie of Hun-
dred Men, with Two Cannon, Held Off
Vive Thousand Asxall&nU for Tito
Hour*.
(Copyright, 1991, br American Press Associa-
tion. Book rights reserved. ]
RANT never
closed the lines
completely
around the Con
federates at Pe
tersburg.but came
very near doing
so on the morning
of April 2, 1865,
the last day of the
siege, about the
hour when Lee
telegraphed to Jef
ferson Davi3 at
Richmond, "My
Une« are broken ia three places," and
warned his government that evacuation
must follow speedily. The gap which had
been Lee's salvation for mouths, and
which he had kept open by the most den
perafce fighting, was about to be closed in
consequence of those three breaks in his
11am, caused by the vigorous assaults of
three of Grant's corps under Gens. Parke,
Wright and Ord.
These assaults began at daylight April
S, with the determination on the Union
■ide of finishing the tight then and there.
The Confederates, driven from their outer
works after stubborn efforts to hold on,
fell back sullenly toward the gap, a space
but little over a mile in width along the
Appomattox river, west of the city. Any
objeot that would afford shelter from the
Union miaritea was made to serve as a
temporary hpeartwork for Lee's retiring
infantry, and every tree and stump and
log and ditch cost a heavy toll in dead
boys in blue before It could be passed. The
Confederate army had been cut in two, one
body being thrown off from Petersburg,
the other left hanging to the fortifications
there, and it was this banging thread that
was curling itself up reluctantly, but of
Imperative necessity, and closing the gap
that, once barred, would shut Lee in while
keeping Grant out. But if Grant could be
kept out until re-enforcements could reach
Lee from across the James the latter could
hold on till nightfall and escape by the
river in the darkneas.
After the breaks in Lee's lines Uifore
mentioned the North Carolina brigade of
Gen. J. H. Lane was making its way by
the curling up process from the broken
front line toward the main Confederate-
line at the gap, disputing every inch ol
ground. About 8 or 9 o'clock in the tnoru
ing the general and his adjutant. Capt.
Hale, reached an empty battery known as
Port Gregg, or Battery Gregg, which was
an outlying work that an extension of the
Confederate line months before had ren-
dered useless. It was a quarter of a mile
or more in advance of the main Confed-
erate treuches, toward which the combat-
ants were racing, the Confederates being
of course on the inside. Lane had orders
to hold on as long as possible and gain time
for the beaten troops to rally on the main
line, and for the expected re-enforcements
to cross the river and occupy them.
As his men had been strung out at wide
intervals when attacked aud dispersed by
the Union columns at daylight, only frag-
ments could be called together at any
given spot, and he placed in Fort Gregg
portions of the Thirty-third and Thirty-
seventh North Carolina infantry, under
four lieutenants— F. H. Snow, A. B. How-
ard and F. B. Cralge, of the Thirty-third,
and D. M. Rlgler, of the Thirty-seventh.
He also got up two ft-pounder guns with
some artillerists of Chew's Maryland bat-
tery and of the famous Washington artil
lery battalion. Lieut. McElroy, of the
Washlngtonians, handled the cannoneers,
about 25 in number. About the same time
20 men of Thomas' Confederate brigade
and 25 of Harris' Mlsslsslppians joined the
garrison, swelling It, according to the best
accounts, to 214. Lieut. Snow commanded
Lane's men and J. H. Duncan led the de-
tachment from Harris' brigade. Gen. Har
ris, with the bulk of his brigade, occupied
Fort Whitworth, a companion to Gregg.
Before leaving Fort Gregg to its fate
Gen. Lane sent in twenty-five rounds of
artillery ammunition aud ordered Snow to
hold it to the last. At that time the Union
guns were firing upon the little citadel,
which was a slight earthwork with low
parapet, over the top of which its own can
non were discharged. At 10 o'clock, by a
mistaken order probably, the cannon of
Fort Whitworth were sent to the rear, and
as this act was witnessed by the Union
troops in front, the charge was sounded to
attack the isolated batteries, Whitworth
and Gregg. The assailants numbered 5,000
and were led by Gen. John Gibbon. Gregg
stood first in the way and felt the brunt of
the onslaught.
The cannoneers in Gregg stood to their
guns gallantly. Three men were shot
dead, one after another, in the attempt to
discharge a single piece. When the assail-
ants reached within forty yards the infan-
try garrison gave them a stinging volley
ban's mm crossed the moat and ahunbered
np the sloping walls, only to be received on
the bayonets of the defenders.
Such desperate resistance had not been
looked for on the part of the Union ofB
cers, but when the character of the strug-
gle became clear, renewed orders were
passed along the line that the position
must be carried at all hazards. Again a
rush was made on all sides. The plucky
defenders used the butts of their muskets
and their bayonets, when there was not
time to load, and many of them, sparing
their ammunition or being short of it,
caught up stones and brickbats and hurled
them from the parape6 upon the daring
fellows who floundered in the moat oi
were climbing by hook or crook up the
walls. In some cases the backs and shoul
ders of the Union men were used as seal
ing ladders by thftir agile comrades.
At Vi o'clock the struggle was at its
height and wa3 carried on at arm's length,
but so far on the exterior crests of the
walls only. About that time some of Gib-
bon's men made a discovery that showed
the one weak spot in the forlorn citadel. It
seems that when the line at that point was
originally built, Forts Gregg and Whit-
worth were intended to be connected by a
trench and breastwork sheltered by a pal-
isade. The work had been begun at the
Gregg end and about thirty feet of trench
had been marie, the dirt thrown out form
ing an embankment as high <xs the walls of
Fort Gregg and connecting with them. In
attempting to surround the fort the assail
ants mounted this strip of embankment
and very soon found It a means of getting
upon tho coveted parapet without first
descending into the deep moat beneath it
Rushing upon this point they over
whelmed the handful who manned that
corner of the work. Many of i he deter-
mined garrison were already down, but
the snrvivors only redoubled their vigor
aud fought with any weapons available.
At length the parapet was lined along the
top with bluecoats busily occupied In
shooting down on the men in gray who
stood on the low platforms inside. So
desperately did the garrison defend their
ground that the parapet was covered with
Union dead. At one time six Union flags
were floating on the walls, while the Con-
federates fought around their own stars
and bars in the interior of the work.
But there had to lie an end to it. Gib-
bon's men swarmed ho thickly that the
Confederates couldn't turn from one to an
other of them quickly enough to do their
deadly work, and were at last overpowered, j
Yet, though forced to abandon their ban- j
quettes at the base of the parapet, they fell i
back lighting, and in scattered groups, on I
the open parade of the fort, struggling |
against fate. At the last moment, when ;
the Union men In numbers were leaping
down inside from all directions and mak j
ing prisoners of their opponents by sheer I
physical strength, oue of Lane's North
Carolinians, a l>oy named Atkinson, seized j
the colors under which he aud his com |
Evidence of Former ExpntMN.
James Richardson, a middle aged
man, was pushed into the receiving
hospital by a policeman at an early
hour one morning. He required sur-
gical treatment. There was blood
on his face, on his shirt and on his
hands. An interesting assortment of
cuts decorated his scalp and his left
eye resembled a ripe plum.
"Been fighting#" asked Steward
Freeman.
"Yep," was tho reply from bruised
lips.
"Got. licked?"
"Yep," and the victim settled back
while Freeman went to work with
sponge, needle and plaster. While at
work Freeman was observing Rich-
ardson's nose. That organ was some-
what swollen and it pointed over its
owner's right shoulder, lying almost
flat to the face.
"Nose broken?" the steward in-
quired.
"Yep," again answered the inuti
lated man. Freeman seized hold of
Richardson's nasal organ vigorously
and tiied to pull it out straight. It
did not budge, but the man did. He
howled like a wolf and swore like a
pirate.
"Keep still till I fix it,"said tho
steward, preparing for another pull.
"Fix! Thunder and great guns!
Young man, that nose was broken
seven years ago and was mended this
way. I don't want it. fixed. 1 have
got used to it as it is and would be
lonesome if I could not see it just so.
You let that nose alone." San Fran
clsco Chronicle.
1&86
AXL READY!
causing them to waver and then give way.
▲ second charge followed, and the assail-
ante reached within thirty yards. The
Confederates held their fire until the prop-
ear moment, and then, with a wild yell, let
go, sending down a man for every musket.
The Union men stood for a moment and
then broke and scattered. A third, a
fourth a fifth charge followed, each
with much the same result as the first two.
With the fifth charge on tbe front a line
of Msailants swung around in rear of the
fort and attempted to gain an entrance.
On tbe front the attack was carried as tar
as the moat. Over an boor had passed
gin/» the first assault and the artillery in
Gregg used all its ammunition and had
lost heavily. Tbe surviving gunners took
np *T*n arms and joined the infan-
try In tuaHni off the assailants. Tbe work
was vtetMdiy »ano«oded. Somq o< Q4>
SAVING THK BATTLE F1AO.
rades had fought so fiercely, dashed past
the swarm of assailante ou the parapet,
and, with the flag floating defiantly, ran at
the top of his speed back to the Confederate
main line, where he was received with wild
oheern. Scores of bullets had been aimed
at him as be flew across the open plain, 500
yards, within range of hundreds of Union
muskets.
There was no formal surrender. Gib
bon's men crowded in on all sides and the
Confederates resisted to the last. The
fighting did not end when the assailants
got inside, for, despite the efforts of their
officers, some of the enraged men exacted
the victor's privilege of vengeance upon
the unfortunates who had made such h
hopeless yet bloody defense.
The dead Confederates numbered 57; the
unwounded prisoners were only 30. The
most of the wounded prisoners were dis
allied. The artillerymen had suffered tor
ribly, being the most exposed on the top of
the wall. Nearly all of them had died at
their guns. The men of Chew's Maryland
battery were volunteers in the fight, their
term of service having expired some days
previously. Unlike the soldiers of the
states in rebellion, the Marylanders were
not held to Confederate service for tbe
whole period of the war.
The loss on Gibbon's column in front of
Fort Gregg is placed at 500 te 600 in killed
and wounded. As soon as Gregg fell its
captors turned the two cannon upon the
neighboring Fort Whitworth, and the gar
rison of that work marched out and sur-
rendered. The gap in the lines along the
Appomattox was now filled by Grant's
troops, but some hours had been consumed
in accomplishing this result, and mean
while, thanks to the delay in the Union
march caused by the holding out of Fort
Gregg, Lee had been able to man his in-
terior line in such strength as to hold it
the remainder of the day. His circle of de-
fense around Petersburg was still com-
plete and no further impression was inadu
upon it by Union assaults.
Tbe exploit at Fort Gregg, though by no
means a marvel, was all the more unique
because of the many detachments under
separate commanders that took part in the
defense. No single officer exercised su-
preme command. The Misslssippian,
Lient. Col. Duncan, held the highest rank
of any, but seems to have assumed author-
ity over his few personal followers only.
He was severely wounded in the fight. The
artillerymen belonged to two different com-
panies, one from Maryland and one from
Louisiana yet they acted in harmony un-
der a Louisiana offioer.
Lane's North Carolina brigade had the
most men in the fort of any single organ-
isation and the greatest number of officers.
Tbe detachment from Thomas' Georgia
brigade had no commissioned officer pres-
ent. Usually in such a crisis there is a
fatal division of opinion; some element
holds aloof from tbe rest and acts inde-
pendently, to the peril of order and suc-
cess. Any one of these groups might have
spoiled the whole game by running up a
white flag at the time of the first Union
charge. On the contrary, all were animat-
ed with a determined, daring purpose to
"bold the fort" or die in the last ditch.
GSOBQ« L. KILKKB.
The Finnish I.anguape.
That strange and difficult tongue,
which is supposed to have once em-
braced the greater part of north-
eastern Europe, is now practically re-
stricted to a remote and sparsely
populated province of the Russian
empire and, despite the factitious
support accorded to it in the past by
the Russian government, its area
seems to be steadily if slowly reced-
ing. Nor is this at all surprising
when we come to examine the lan
guage itself. Finnish grammar is
of a difficulty absolutely repulsive.
None of the other languages of the
same group is half so hard. Hun
garian nay, even Turkish, despite
the vexatious initial impediment ol
the Arabic alplialwt— is easy in coin
parison.
The syntax is at once provokingly
elaborate and perplexingly obscure.
It possesses fifteen distinct cases and
four and twenty differentiated infin
itive forms, but on the other hand
there is no real distinction between
nouns, adjectives, adverbs, preposi
tions, infinitives and participles, so
that the student must not be startled
by finding infinitives regularly de
clined like nouns, and nouns taking
upon them degrees of comparison like
ad j ecti ves.—Anthenaeum.
The Job Wan Done.
It was a big Fairfield rooster and
he regularly patrolled the track ol
the Waterville and Fairfield horse
railroad. Half a dozen times each
day the drivers would halt their cars
in order to allow the perverse fowl
to stalk serenely off the track. In
time the rooster became a sort ol
railroad specter, and he was talked
about around the stables with partic-
ularly lively hatred.
One day a substitute driver took a
car for a trip. When he returned tc
the stable his face beamed with ex
ultant malice and he proudly an-
nounced, "I've killed that dad-quiz
zled old rooster; cut his head plum
off, got him right and run over him
on purpose.''
This was pleasant until the new
driver heard the sequel. The trouble-
some old rooster belonged to his fa
ther, and he found the family lament
ing when he went home to dinner.
He had been away from home for a
few months, and was not posted upon
the personnel of the old gentleman's
poultry stock.—Lewiston Journal.
Happy New Year
I" nends and patrons, we extend to you our kind felicitations,
and sincerely thank you for the many favors extended to lis during
the past year. #
We shall in the future strive with an assiduity unequaled in the
past to merit a continuance of the patronage that has been bestowed
upon us.
We arc now going into our sixth year, with a future that is
Grander and Brighter than Ever Before.
Notwithstanding the assertion of opposition, "that we could not
last lono" (no doubt thev considered their own poor, miserable
<->' v. J
failures when they spoke)
rr
0-DAY
rr
E
IN THE DRY GOODS TRADE OF BRENHAM.
Iw Stoop to Do a
A Horse's Attachment to a Companion.
Two Hanoverian horses had long
served together during the Peninsulai
war in a German brigade of artillery.
They had assisted in drawing the
same gun, and had been inseparable
companions in many battles. One ot
them was at last killed, and after the
engagement the survivor was pick-
eted as usual and liis food brought to
him. He refused, however, to eat, and
was constantly turning around his
head to look for his companion, some-
times neighing as if to call hiin. All
the care that was bestowed upon him
was of no avail. He was surrounded
by other horses, but he did not notice
them, and he shortly afterward died,
not having once tasted food from the
time his former associate was killed.
—London Tit-Bits.
The Cutty.
It is not generally known that the
word cutty, as applied to a species of
clay pipe very much used, is a cor-
ruption of Kutaich, a city in Asia
Minor, where a species of soft white
stone is found, which is exported by
the Turks to Germany for the manu-
facture of tobacco pipes.—All the
Year Round.
what
Health Item.
Boy—Is soup healthy?
Parent—Why, certainly;
makes you ask»
Boy—Well, when I smoke yon say
it is not healthy, and the 6oup is
sr-oking and you say it is healthy.
What does this mean, anyhow f—
T«xas Sittings.
i - - • - - —
TOWABDS .A. COMPBTITOiy
Be a factor in the concerns in which the
people are interested
He went on to say: The master motive in
buying and selling is—money. Not because men
love lucre, but because money stands for the com-
modities and necessaries of life. You should be
engaged in business to make money; not to
accumulate, but to enable you to live. You should
buy your goods where you can make money by
saving it; for a dollar saved is a dollar earned.
In presenting your claims for patronage, before
saying a word about the excellence or variety of
your stock, you want to appeal to this master
motive. If you can save money to your patrons
on their purchases; if it will put mone in their
pockets to trade with you, you know that, other
things being equal, you have a strong presump-
tion that you can
Win Their Patronage and Hold It.
It is upon this advice that we have endeavord to conduct onr business. We have
always marked our goods at such low figures that we were confident that a comparison of
our prices would furnish the strongest argument in our favor. In soliciting your patron-
age we do it in the confident assurance that you will save money by trading with us.
Now, a word in general with respect to our stock for the New Year: We shall spare
no pains to make it complete in every respect; complete in the variety of goods it com-
prehends, in the quality of each article placed on sale, and last, though noleast, in prices
that will be put at the lowest possible profit mark. Again wishing one and all a Happy
New Year, We remain your appreciative friends,
c
'U
The advice we received quite early in our business career, from
an experienced and successful merchant, stays with us yet, and as it
has its good points, we give it here. He said :
Your town will soon find out whether you
are slow or not. This does not imply reckless
buying. It means, get ahead of the knowledge
of your customers, anticipate their demands. Be
interested interested in the development of your
city's interests, producing results on a fair, square
basis on everything you take hold of.
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Brenham Daily Banner. (Brenham, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 14, Ed. 1 Friday, January 15, 1892, newspaper, January 15, 1892; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth481971/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.