This is Mrs. Martin standing in front of Fort Stedman which was attacked by 300 Confederates carrying only hatchets on the early morning of March 25, 1865. After these volunteers hacked up the siege works with the axes and hatchets, they had to use these to fight the Union soldiers in the Fort as these volunteers had no weapons except the axes and hatchets. Other Confederates followed these volunteers into the Fort and they had guns and muskets. The Confederates over ran the Union soldiers but the Union soldiers counterattacked later that day and drove the Confederates away. Mrs. Martin was sitting by her son Willie when this picture was taken. Willie's father, Private William Jasper Martin, was present during a great part of the Petersburg siege. Mrs. Martin made a remark to the Press who interviewed her at this spot. She said, "I'm glad that Willie got to come up here and finally see where his Daddy fought". I'll be ... My G-G-Grandfather fought in this action. After participating in taking Ft Stedman he and his command were cut off and finally overwhelmed. He went through the entire war, rising from Forth Corporal to Captain, and spent the last few months of the war as a POW.
Another great-grandfather was a private, wounded at Second Manassas. I've been able to track down the location were he fell to within a few hundred feet.
History is not dead as long as there are those who will remember.
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