The Oxford intelligencer., 1861-04-24
Terrible Effects Of Rifed Cannon.

GAErA, February 90, No part of the whole
mass of town, fortress and hill has entirely es-
capped the favagcs Of artillery which Numbered
at it from the land side. Where the cannon
balls did not hit point blank, there the bomb
shell fell with dire effect. The bescigers reckon
that they fred during the whole seigc, about
$4,000 shot; $1,000 in one day alone, the 22d
of January. 1t is hardly an cxaggeration to
say that you may almost tell the effect Of each
projcctile; you almost come to the conclusion
that not one Of them has been hurled in vain
The seige of Gacta is, believe the first instance
in which rifed cannon has been applied on a
large scale to the batteries of walls and bastions
The Piedmontese, as told you, had reared 80
Of these new war engines on their batteries,
and no man who has not seen 1t can believe the
havoc they have caused. ! have already de-
scribed to you the condition Of that part Of the
town. | had already visited that narrow slip
stretching from the town gate TO the royal pal
ace. The houses in this part may be said to be
either altogether blown away or struck up ell
of heap; the batteries lining the sea, before
these houses and even, IN some instances, the
easements under them, are mass Of crumbling
ruins. The royal palace, and the higher and
lower town before it, are still standing; but
there is hardly building lofty or lowly, wheth-
or jutting out or shrinking back, that may be
>alu W We unSCatntu SAW scNtIdi NuldiuOuS
holes through the roof Of the Catholic Church,
and more than one of its windows smashed out
Of all shape As assembled the hill, the road
the ground, the fencing walls the whole mass
nearly up to the summit was, here and there
ploughed up, lcveled down, torn asunder, de-
stroyed with violence exceeding all could i'm
agine as the effect of mere human contrivancc
The whole hill, up the foot of Roand's Tower,
was strewn with projectiles and fragments Of
projectiles. The round tower itself was hit in
more than one spot, and, although a small bat
terry of four riied cannon, reared by the Nea-
politans on the hill-crest, had not suffered, yet
there was evidence that no inch Of ground with
in the peninsula Of Gaeta might be considered
as safe from the cnemy's fire. | walked half
way down the hill to the Queens battery, and
there may say one but OF four Of the pieces
were dismounted, and the parapets were every
where grieyously damaged; but proceeded to
the lower bastions which had evidently borne
the brunt Of the attack, and there is no cxag-
geration in saying the original Of the works is
scarcely any longer to be recognized, so miser-
ably gabions, sandbsgs, walls, parspets, cannon,
affuts, and the ground they stood on, have been
blown, and, Is It were, winnowed together.
have seen such havoc caused 10 an Italian vine
yard or garden by furious bail storm, where
q few stumps Of trees are all that remain Of
what was half an hour before, q rank mass Of
luxuriaut vegetation; but could not / repeat
believe that fortress or part Of II could be
''crumpied up as an old piece Of paper" As
saw Gaeta yesterday. There Is something be-
wiIdering. appalling IN the sight Of 50 extensive
a wreck Correspondents London Times.