VICKSBURG Chapter Eight - One

 

Sergeant William Henry Tunard,  of the 3^rd Louisiana infantry, remembered the moment the 2,200 pounds of black powder was ignited in the tunnel beneath the eastward point of the redan. “Suddenly the earth under our feet gave a convulsive shudder and with a muffled roar a mighty column of earth, men, poles, spades and guns arose many feet in the air. About fifty lives were blotted out in that instant.”

There was no crater, but rather a 35 to 40 foot wide jumble of wood and flesh and yellow clay. It was an abrupt void in the rebel fort. And before the dirt had settled, about 500 Yankees from Illinois began rushing into the wounded fort.

They were the 45^th Illinois Volunteer regiment, also known as the “Washburn Lead Mine Regiment.” They mostly came from around the northwestern town of Galena. In 1845 the dozens of mines in Jo Davis County had shipped some 27,000 tons of the ore down the Mississippi River. 

So many miners went up the Galena River every spring to dig for placer deposits of lead, they reminded a farmer of a local fish, because like White Suckers, “they go up the river to spawn and return down ag'in in the fall.”  But when the thin veins called “rakes” curved below the water table, the lead fell out of reach. And after 1849 most of the miners left to chase California gold.

The region had been represented since 1852 in the U.S. Congress by Elihu Benjamin Washburne (above).  He was one of the founders of the Republican Party,  and an ally of both Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses Grant. 

But in 1861, there were still enough lead mines around Galena, Illinois (above),   that the regiment could supply miners to undermine the Louisiana redan. At about 3:35 p.m. on that Friday, 25 June, 1863, the “Suckers” from Illinois stormed four abreast into the fort.

The charge was led by 22 year old Color Sergeant Henry Harrison Taylor, who planted the regimental flag on the lip of the collapsed inner wall.  Riflemen spread out beside him, trying to answer the desperate fire from the angry 3^rd Louisiana men behind that wall.  

Leading the Yankee troops was Swiss born Lieutenant Colonel Melancthon Smith. He had replaced the original commander, his brother, John Eugene Smith, who had been made a General after the battle of Shiloh. But Colonel Smith was shot in the head entering the fort. Command of the 45^th then passed to Leander B. Fisk, who had been a Major for only a little over a month, But he was killed shortly after taking command.

The responsibility now fell upon 26 year old Major Jasper (Bob) Adalmorn Maltby (above).  There were some who had little respect for Bob, including General Smith who opinioned that, “Maltby, I do not think, would let out a fart without first asserting if there were someone ready to smell it.” 

But the lawyer's son seems to have been a born fighter. He had been wounded while serving as a private in the Mexican War of 1847-48, and afterward, while struggling to overturn a dishonorable discharge, in 1850 he had moved to Galena and opened a successful gunsmith and sporting goods store at 184 Main street.  In 1852 Congress overturned the court martial and gave Bob Maltby a clean record.

Despite having the most successful gun store in Galena, and a wife and 2 children to support, Jasper Maltby did not hesitate to enlist after First Bull Run.  His fellow volunteers elected him lieutenant. His courage on the second day at Shiloh, wounded and yet leading his company to sweep the rebels from the field,  earned his promotion to captain.  He had survived the 22 May assault, and was promoted to Major because of vacancies that blood bath created.  And now, on 25 June, Major Maltby, sudden commander of the 45^th, and wounded twice that day already, remained in the pit, helping to erect a wooden barricade, to hold the just captured devastated ground.

The engineer, Captain Hickenlooper,  never intended his mine to blow a hole in the rebel lines, straight through to Vicksburg.  Rather he saw it as an extension of the siege.  Proof of this was he sent no storming parties into the redan. He did not send a regiment with bayonets fixed. He sent work crews, with pillars and buttresses, not logs cut to form ladders, but posts and boards to build a bulwark. And other than the few marksmen to distract the rebels, every other man in the 45^th was engaged in erecting a new fortification within the redan, including Major Bob Maltby.

To quote from his wife's epitaph, in lauding her husbands achievements, “ Beams were passed into the pit, and these were put into position as a protection...The joists were placed lengthwise and dirt was quickly piled about them....(Major) Maltby helped in the lodging of the beams...put his shoulder under a great piece of timber...pushed it up and forward into place....(then a rebel cannon)....solid, shot struck the beam... and split it into kindling. Great sharp pieces of the wood were driven into....(Major Maltby, who) was literally hurled to the bottom of the black pit” The 45^th Illinois was soon replaced by the 20^th Illinois, and  Bob Maltby was carried to the rear.  Doctors deemed his wounds too numerous to be counted, the most serious being were head and leg injuries.

Just like work shifts in the mine, the 20^th Illinois was soon replaced by the 31^st Illinois, who were replaced in their turn by the the 23^rd Indiana Volunteers.  Next it was the turn of the 17^th Iowa regiment, and then at 2:00 a.m by a return of the 31^st Illinois. At daylight on Saturday, 26 June, 1863, the 45^th moved back into the position. 

By now the walls and barricades were strong enough that the regiment's turn at the work could be extended until 10:00 a.m., when the 124^th Illinois Volunteers went in to finish the job. And even as the rebels of the 3rd Louisiana poured fire down upon the Yankees, the rising barricades offered increasing protection.  

 By 5:00 p.m. that Saturday, the new position was secure and fighting was reduced again to the deadly background of sniping and bomb throwing.

The cost of the new strategy was high, but not as devastating as the failures of 22 May had been. On 25 June, the 45^th Illinois had suffered 8 killed, and 62 wounded, including Major Maltby, who would survive and be promoted to Colonel. 

The 20^th Illinois suffered 2 dead and 7 wounded – the 31^st Illinois 7 dead and 27 wounded - the 124^th Illinois had 6 killed and 49 wounded – the 23^rd Indiana 8 dead and 31 wounded – the 17^th Iowa Volunteer regiment had 3 killed and 34 wounded – and the 56^th Illinois 4 dead and 13 wounded. 

In total, to advance the line a few yards into the 3^rd Louisiana redan cost the Federal army 38 dead and 223 wounded. It was a high cost but shared between 7 regiments. And in an army built upon regiments, that meant each could remain effective and in the siege line. And their opponents, the 3^rd Louisiana, suffered 58 killed and 96 wounded.

And after night fell,  on the evening of 26 June, 1863,  with the new defense lines firmly in place, the miners began digging a new tunnel to plant a new mine underneath what was left of the Louisiana redan.

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