Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 33.djvu/355

 Field of Blood Was The Crater. 351

From the Times- Dispatch, Nov. 12, 1905.

FIELD OF BLOOD WAS THE CRATER.

Address Delivered at Reunion of Mahone's Men in Petersburg.

[Whilst during the reunion of Confederate veterans at Petersburg, Virginia, in October 1905, the memorable battle of the Crater was not as had been proposed fought over again with the reality which only participants therein might render, still the convocation was in many ways important in results for the common weal. Not only as so eloquently presented by the gallant Captain John Lamb, in pre- vious pages, but in published testimonials, of valiant Federals: Mr. J. D. Lynch of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a member of battery D, 2nd Pennsylvania Heavy Artillery, whose regiment was in the front line of the battle, in a letter to Governor Montague, regretting his inability to be present at the reunion, gave the following inter- esting incident:

"He says that he and his colonel pulled two Confederates from under the debris and gave them their breakfast. 'There were two Confederates,' says the letter, 'buried under the loose ground. They were both in the same hole. I think one was a lieutenant. I was sitting over them, and felt the ground move under me. My colonel ordered me to dig the dirt away. I got them both out, and neither was hurt. We gave them breakfast out of our haversacks.' '

Mr. Lynch, further expressed a desire to hear from these vete- rans if they were still living.

Lieut-Colonel J. S. Watrous, U.S. A., in an article extensively published by the press, touchingly gave the reasons why Captain Tom La Flesch, who had recently died in California, and who fought through the war in the 2nd Wisconsin Cavalry, (whose first colonel was the late Gov. C. C. Washburne), "loved the men in gray," who starving, barefooted and almost naked, accepted the cruel suf- ferings unmurmeringly, and "fought like tigers."

At the regular meeting of A. P. Hill Camp, C. V., Nov. 2, 1905, a beautiful souvenir was presented to the camp by Rev. Dr. Ray oi Petersburg, on behalf of the Pennsylvania Second Heavy Artillery Association, a delegation from which came to the reunion, and