Cedar Falls gazette. [volume] (Cedar Falls, Iowa) 1860-1895, 1862-06-27
An Artilleryman's Description of the Fair
Oaks Battle.

An Artilleryman's Description of the Fai,
s... Oaks Battle.
One of tho most interesting accounts W.
have seen of the desperate fight at Fair Oaks
near Richmond, is given in private letter
from an artlleryman attached to what il
known as the Napoleon gun battery" ir
Casey's division, and which was in the from,
line of the first days battle before Richmond
After describing the opening of that fight, he
says:
The pickets soon began to fire rapidly
and came running in, while the infantry
posted behind fence to support them, blaz
cd away into the woods. The artillery or
our right opened fire and mingled their thun
der with the sharp roll of the musketry.- -
Soon our Napoleon guns, (three Of which
were posted in an unfinished rcdoubt, and
three OH the left near a rifle pit,) opened
with case shot, which went whizzing through
the air, over the heads Of our own men, right
into the midst of the enemy, and there ex.
ploded, scattering death through their ranks
On the left, the rebels were seen coming
through the woods to flank us, and wheeling
three OF our guns so as to bear upon them
wo poured case shot among them with unex.
ampled rapidity and terrible effect.
The destruction was horrible. Our spher.
ical case shot are awful missiles, each of them
consisting Of a clotted mass of seventy. five
musket balls, with charge of powder in the
center, that is fired by fuse the same as a
shell. The missile first acts as solid sho,
plowing its way through masses of men, and
then exploding. hurls forward shower OF
musket balls that NOV down the foe in heaps.
Our battery threw twenty -four of these in a
minute, and as we had the exact range oi
every part of the field, every shot told with
frghtful effect. But the enemy were not at
all daunted. They marched steadily on, and
hailed perfect tempest of balls upon U.S.
Why we, as well rs our horses, were not cv-
cry one Of US shot down will forever remain
a mystery to me. We did not mind the
leaden hail, however, but kept pouring our
case shot into the dense masses of the foe,
who came in prodigous and overwhelming
force. And they fought splendidly, too
Our shot tore their ranks wide open, and
shattered them asundcr in manner that was
frightful to witness; but they closed up
again at once, and came OH as steadily as
English veterans.
When they got within 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-indced
whole companies went down before that mur-
derous fire but they closed up with an order
and discipline that was awe-ilspirng. They
seemed to be animated with the courage of
despair blended with the hope of speedy vic
tory If they could by an overwhelming rush
drive us from our position. .G =. =,
1t was awful to sec their ranks torn and
shattered 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 be.
hind another, were steadily advancing, and
three Of their flags were brought in range OF
our guns shotted with canister.
" "Fe!" shouted the gunner, and down
went those three flags, and gap was open.
cd through those three lines as if thunder
bolt had torn through them, and the dead
lay in swaths. But they at once closed up
and came steadily on, never haltng or way
ering, right through the woods, over the
fence, through the fields, right up to our
guns, and sweeping everything before them,
captured every piece.
When we delivered our last fire. they were
within fifteen or twenty PAGES Of US, and 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 entertainments, and there held the enemy
in check till reinforcements arrived, and then
We kept our position till night put an end to
the battle.