St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1862-05-15

one charge fired Of itself, nearly ratriking
with reooil that cool old sunhar, Tom, ib
the face, as he was deliberately sighting
the piece. Let me say here that as fast
as VI sesrea dur ppstg,,2 We !sFpDHtd! oil Che
ground, rising again when our turn came,
doing this so quickly that it caused no de-
lay. Az lay down I took my friction
hns trdh ray snhay pouch, 6ooksd.it to fhee )ans
yard, and as soon as No. 8 removed his
thumb from the vent, put it in, waited till
Tom sighted the piece, stepped aside to
watch the'etfect of his shot, gave the order
""ready, fire." at the same raising his hand
(for, l, was deaf and as l pulled the lam
yard, [ .fallp the; ground. In this way
We probably saved ourselves from a good
many wounds. We we're again moved fur
ther up Is the left. tor. the enemy were
now on our flank. We were near each
other now, and they got our range almost
as soon as we wero planted. The right
aud centre section fred to the front, while
the IRE sf our section was directed against
the Aanking portion Of their lines Now
we began to realize the horrors of war;.
The infantry began to pour storm Of balls
against them, and as we saw the detested
gray coats on the hill, across the ravine.
we ,pouredin q well directed fire off, shell.
ASH dropt on the ground, L could see the
she'll. bursting among them the smoke
from our, own guns prevented me from SEE
ing our own shots, but I knew Tom would
do! we'll. In; this action We. suffered, Ed
Russell, young man whom you have often
seen Behind the counter of Smiths bank,
as: geptlemanly young ma man in s sas We 1had in
the battery, had his bowels torn ont by a
solid shot He lived but half an. hour
His lost woros were, as he lay on his face,
II die like man. And good man Farm
ham, . Christian man, ny terminate for six
months, while I remained in sqad one, was was
shot through aboge,ths heart while serving
the same part that Twas. I, = :. Eleniggan mer:
~ hearted 1rishman, and the intimate
friend Of Ed. Russell, was shot through the
outh--also No 4 or his gun. Several
were wounded here, but still:stood manful:
ly to their posts. Our horses were shot
here and had to be replaced. When I
could 1 kept my eyes on the enemy, and
saw them bringing a battery to bear Oh the
flank of, our infantry; and soon a deadly
FIRE rraked the lines to Che front Of tus:-
Our lines broke and run righ. across oui
front. We yelled at them to keep away
from, our fire, but they didn't hear; I ran
forward and waved my hat, but to no pur.
pose, and 1 went back to my post and fir.
ed through Them. No laying down now;
we fired and loaded so fast that it was one
continual: II roar The infantry would not
be rallied; they were panic stricken, and
we limbered up and were ordered to retire
0n.a Halk' fol- fear of ihcreasingthe panic,
After We had moved back some distance,
Lieutenant Wood came up and informed
a few Of US who were following our gun
(next to the last when in marching col.
,umn) that we would have to go and help
sqad two's howitzer off the field =. I went
back with some others and We, found the
enemy running up the slope and pouring a
destructive ,ii5e upon u.s. The nigh wheel
honer had been shot: before the wi heel,
they had to disengage him, and the lead
and swing teams we're 50 entangled that
the driver" we're recommended to take
them off the field: When !; got there
they, was just starting;rl took hold of two
branches that answer for the aeck:yoke
and helped pull. -, The of pole horse, the
only one, aG'l and a baulllky animal p at that, a.,
seemed to- catch the spirit Of the men. and
started into "a run, and we saved the how,
.itzer, having Gig ght men woanded,in the
performance: Charles Kitnball, boy Of
my size, who sold you lots Of stone q M q Sin
ger & Taloott's yard, was. badly wounded
in the hip at this time: As I passed squad
fourteen, one of thenpostillious halloed cut
al he fell from his hofse;ai1 caught him in
y,ar ny arms A&le A&he is six feet three INCHES, and
weighs about two hundred hplnpddre pounds, g
that Of course / could not, sustain his
@sfghtyh He said, ~ guess Fm'hotimuch
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