The Jeffersonian Democrat. [volume] (Chardon, Ohio) 1854-1865, 1861-05-03
Terrible Effects Of Rifed Cannon

pAhiA, IeOIudIJ ~ mo part OF tne
whole mass OF town, fortress and hill has
entirely escaped the ravages Of artillery
which thun; cred at it from the land side.
Where The cannon balls did not hi; point
blank, there the bombshelI fell with dire
effect. The beseigers reckon that they
fired, during the whole seige, about 5D,.
400 shot; $4,000 10 one day alone, the
22I Of January. II is hardly an exag.
geralion 10 say that you may almost tell
the effect of each rrojccllle; you almost
come TO the conclusion that no Que OF
item has been hurled in vain. The
seige Of Gaeta is. believe, the first in.
stance in which riflcd cannon has been ap.
piled on large scale to the batteries oI
walls aud bastons. The Piedmontese
as | told you, had reared 80 Of these ne W
war engines on their batteries, and nc
man who has not seen it can believe the
havoc they have caused. / have already
described to you the condition Of thai
part Of the town. | had already visited
that narrow slip stretching from the town
gate 10 the royal palace. The houses in
this part may be said to he either alto
gether blown away or struck up all OF a
heap the batteries lining the sea, before
these houses, and even, in some instan.
ces, the easements under them, are mass
of crumblng ruins. The royal palace,
and the higher and lower town before it,
are still standing; but there is hardly a
building, lofty OF lowlv, whether jutting
out or Shrinking back, that may be said
TO be unscathed. | Isaw several viIlainou.
holes through the roof OF the Catholic
Church, and more than one of iis window,
smas cl out Of all shape. AS ascendec
the hill, the road, the ground, the fencing
walls, the whole mass neatly up to tie
summit was here and there, ploughed up
leveled down, torn asunder, destroy &C
with VIC lence exceeding all could i'm
agine as the effect of a mere human con
trivance. The whole hill, up the foot o.
R"land's Tower, was strewm with pro
jecIiles and fragments of projrcties. The
round tower itself was hit in more thar
one spot, and. althogh small battery O
four rifcd cannon, reared by the Ncapol-
itans on the hill crest, had not suffered
yet there was evidence that no inch o
ground within the peninsula of Gaeta,
might be considered as safe from The
enemy's fire. | walked half way down
the bill TO Inc Queens battery, AMI there
| may say one out of four of the pieces
were everywhere grievously damaged
but | proceeded 10 the lower baslon'
which had evidently borne the brunl O
the attack and there is no exaggeralion in
say ing the original OF the works is scarcely
any longer TO be recognized, so miserably
gabions, sandbags. walls, parapets. can
non, aifuls, and the ground they stood on
have been blown. and, as it were, win.
moved together. have seen such havoc
caused in an Italian vineyard or garden
by furions hail storm, where a few
siumps Of trees are all that remain OF wha
WAS half an hour before, rank mass o
luxuriant Vegetation but could not, re
peat, believe that fortress or part Of il
could be "crumpled up as an old piece o.
paper" as saw Gaeta yesterday. Thcr,
is something bewildering, appalling in the
sight Of so extensive a wreck.-C Core
sponde nee London Times.