The Hancock Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Ohio) 1857-1870, 1864-08-26
The White Hat.
AN INCIDENT OE THE WAR

"You see," said the sergeant. .th,
redoubt nearest 10 us was OH hill tc
the right and in front of Fort Donel
son. 1t was only an earthwork but
pretty well built, and protected b,
some tolerably heavy guns in that
side of the fort.
NY regiment held very good po
sition in a sort ot corner made by q
hill and small wood. We could
hide among the trees somewhat and
pick Off the artillervmen in the re.
doubt, whenever they showed them.
selves. That's why we were station
ed there we were sharpshooters. you
know, and had first.rate rides.
There were some pretty smart
shots on tother side. too, Some OF
those Mississippi and Arkansas fcl-
lows are regular devils Mt shooting
straight, and it want safe for us Ia
cut any capers in plain sight Of them
My Captain was k He'd hy one OF
them. He was a hair brained chap,
was Morrison, and seemed to put him.
self in the way of danger, rather than
not The gold stripes on his trowsers
and cap made him = good mark,
and when he went down the hill to Il
little clump OF bushes to see about
posting our two howitzprs there, so
We couli shell the rcdouht, l judged
likely he wouldn't come back.
Ale didn't. Oar lat Lieutenant
and five men went down an brought
his body in when the cnemy's fire let
up bit, and l noticed he was shot in
the head. 1t was good shooting, sis,
at long range. There aren't many
can hit man at all. quarter or mile
Off; much less in the head and
don't donht the fellow aimel Just
where he hit.
1--WE held that position through
nearly the whole fight. The sortie
that drove McClernand back. and took
Schwartz battery, was not in our
direction. That was on the other
side, along tie road, to our left -
When the rciniorcements came and
hclped McClernand, we joined in and
followed the rebels as they retreated,
till they took the redouht.
Fighting so long from one posi-
ton. we got pretty well acquainted
with the cnsmv There were only a
few who dared show themselves mnch
on the side of the outwork toward us.
They were the crack shots. and only
showed their heads long enough to
take aim and firr.
"The hest among them was man
with q white hat. One OF these tall
white fe't hats. you know, thst conn
try fellows wear. He had red rih-
hon tied around il and It made 4 tip.
top mark But hp was cunning as a
weasel He'd set the hat up on his
ramrod Just over the edge Of the
breastwork, and 60 OFF few wards
from it to fire II one of our fellows
went in sight To shoot at the hat, sup
posing it had head in it. bullet
would come whis,ling mighty close
close enough to make a hole some
times and oil white hat wo'ld jump
mp, wave his arms, and veil so you
could have heard him mile.
"rhere were about twenty of us
who were called the hest rihemen of
the regiment. | hope You won't think
I'm Dragging, sir, when say I was
one of them, I've done some deer
and turksv shooting, in my time,
down on the Mississippi, and have
handled rifle ever since l was big
enough to lit one.
"Well, we all had crack at this
fellows white hat, over an over
again, but somehow we couldn't hit
him
"Wc scared him. though. saw
his hat come up above the parapet,
and knew it was on the ramrOd again,
so says to JaRers, one OF my men :
'Janers, you shoot ut that but keep
covered, AMI when he rises I Il fetch
him
$50 Janers blazed away at the tile,
but like fool he went right olt on
the hill to do it. We could see lit
tie Whit of smoke about rol from
the hatr and up jumped the rascal,
yelling and dancing like mad l let
drive ut him, but just a. l was getting
sight, poor Janers staggered back,
shot through the stomach, aud fell
over right at nv feet That unstesd-
led my aim little and L missed; but
I reckon the pill must have come aw-
ful close; for white hat didn't show
himself so much afterwards.
IL suppose he killed ss many a'
eight OF our crack shots one time and
another. 1t made us mad, can tel
you, but he seemed to he bewitched
somehow, so that we couldn't hit
him.
"At last. one Of our lieutenant'
came along and asked what we wer,
doing, all huddled together that way