, 1862-08-02
rerrible slaughter at rair oaks.

An artilleryman who is attached to what
known as the Napoleon gun battery, in Casey
DIVISION at the battle of Fair Oaks, gives tn,
following vivid description of the carnage h
witnessed
The pickets soon began to fire rapidly ant
came running in, while the infantry, posted be
hind the fence to support them, blazed away int,
the woods. The artillery on our right opened
fire and mingled their thunder with the sharp rol
of the musketcy. Soon our n apoleon guns (thre
of which were posted in an unfinished redoubt
and three on the left near rife pitt opened witt
case shot, which went whzzing through the air
over the heads Of our own men, right into tb,
midst of the enemy, and there exploded, scatter
ing death through their ranks On the left the
rebels were seen coming through the woods tc
flank us, and wheeling three of our guns so as tc
bear upon them, we poured case shot among
them with unexampled rapidity and terrible eff
feet
The destruction was horrible Our spherical
case shot are awful missiles, each OF them con.
sistng of clotted mass of seventy-six musket
balls, with charge of powder in the center, that
is fired by fuse the same as a she'll The missile
first acts as a solid shot, plowing its way through
masses of men, and then exploding, hurls forward
a shower of musket balls that now down the foe
in heaps Our battery threw twenty-four of these
minute, and as we had the exact range of every
part of the field every shot told with frightfu ef
feet. But the enemy were not at all daunted.-
They marched steadily on, and hailed perfect
tempest of balls upon u.s. Why we, as we'll as
our horses, were not every one shot down, will
forever remain a mystery to me- We did not
mind the leaden ball. however, but kept pouring
our case-shot into the dense masses of the foe,
who came in prodigious and overwhelming force.
And they fought splendidly, too. Our shot tore
their ranks wide open, and shattered them asun-
der in manner that was frightful to witness but
they closed up again at once, and came on as
steadily as English veterans.
When they got witein four hundred yards we
closed our case-shot and opened on them with
canister and such destruction | never elsewhere
witnessed. At each discharge great gaps were
made in their ranks-indeed whole companies
went down before that murderous fire but they
closed up with an order and discipline that was
awe-nspiripg. They seemed to be animated with
the courage of despair blended with the hope of
a speedy victory if they could by an overwhelm-
ing rush drive US from our position.
1t was awful to see their ranks torn and shat
tered by every discharge of canister that we
poured into their faces, and while their dead and
dying lay in piles, they closed up, and still kept
advancing right in the face of that fire. At one
time three lines, one behind another were steadily
advancing, and three of their flags were brought
in range ofour guns shotted with canister.
Fire !" shouted the gunner, and down went
those three flags, and a gap was opened through
those three lines as if thunderbolt had torn
through them, and the dead lay in swaths. But
they at once closed up and came steadily on, new
er halting or wavering, right through the woods,
over the fence through the field, right up to our
guns, and sweeping everything before them, cap
tured every piece.
When we delivered our last fire, they were
within fifteen or twenty PAGES of US, ard as all our
horses had been killed or wounded, we could not
carry off gun. Our whole division was cut to
pieces, with what loss | do not know. We fell
back to a second line of entrenchments, and there
held the enemy in check till renforcements ar
rived, and then kept our position till night put
an end to the battle