The
Artwork of
Henry E. Kidd
Fine Virginia Artist
& Author
September 11, 2001 & AdoptAStation
Art:
This is an extreamly accurate account of the Battle of the Crater in Petersburg, Virginia.
In June of 1864, the Union Army brought war to the doorsteps of Petersburg. The outnumbered Confederate Army fought them to a standstill at the city limits. Both sides dug in just a few hundred yards from each other and proceeded to find ways to break the other’s grip on the city. A bold plan by a Pennsylvania coalminer was conceived and became the Union’s answer to ending the war. The 48th Pa. Infantry would dig a tunnel and blowup a Confederate fort as a black division, yet to be tested in battle, trained to lead the attack.
Fighting far from home, both Union and Confederate soilders prayed they would survive to see home again. However, many Southern sons were from Petersburg. The men of the 12th Va. Infantry fought where they had played as children while their wives and families were under the constant threat of death.
This is a story of great courage, love, betrayal, sacrifice and diversity. It is told from all sides, from Union to Confederate, from privates in the trenches to generals and presidents, from military to civilian, from men to women, from black to white, and from free to slave. Although, this is a novel, all historical facts are true and undistorted.
The President of the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, Virginia has compaired Henry's book with that of Michael Shaara's 'Killer Angels'. He said that Henry has done for the privates in the trenches what Sharra did for the generals.
The cost of the book is $25.00 plus $4.00 shipping. Call, 804-526-2327 to order.
The following is a small sample from Chapter 9 describing the explosion of eight thousand pounds of black power placed in a tunnel underneath a Confederate fort, (Elliott's Salient).
Confederate Headquarters, Army of Northern Virginia, Violet Bank
July 30, 4:44 a.m.
General Lee fastened the last button on his vest and stepped out of his tent. He looked down at a chicken quietly pecking the ground. It was the hen that slept under his cot and faithfully laid two eggs for his breakfast each morning. Sudden movement and the flutter of wings from the Cucumber Tree caught Lee’s attention. Traveller stopped nibbling grass and held his head high. His ears stood erect. Lee thought he heard a distant rumble of thunder.
Confederate Lines, Elliott’s Salient, East of Petersburg, Va.
July 30, 4:44 a.m.
The artillery men of Cpt. Richard Pegram’s battery were the first to hear a deep rumble and feel a strange vibration coming from deep within the earth directly beneath them. They looked to one another for answers. Their uncertainty changed to fear as the noise grew louder and the ground began to rise.
Union Trenches, East of Petersburg, Va.
July 30, 4:44 a.m.
An instant later, Union soldiers felt the tremors and heard the increasing rumbles. Every man within sight of the fort immediately turned. They watched in utter amazement as Elliott’s Salient, still intact, rose several feet in height. The sounds grew ominous and then the fort erupted. A huge, solid shaft of flame and smoke belched from an enormous rip in the earth.
Confederate Lines, Elliott’s Salient, East of Petersburg, Va.
July 30, 4:44 a.m.
Awakened for the last time, the defenders of the salient found themselves rocketing skyward. Transfixed by the spectacle, Union soldiers saw the men clearly rising to the heavens, along with large sections of earth, limbers, artillery, torsos and severed limbs. The entire mass of humanity and debris reached a height of nearly two hundred feet, where, for a brief moment, it all seemed to float, as if waiting for the hand of God to accept the new souls now being offered Him.