Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-03-31

long watching enabled them to select
points where an enemy would be like
ly to appear, and to keep the rifle
ready trained on them. Thus, one
man necessarily watched the play of
the sunbeams on pile Of earth, so far
away that human being could hard
ly be detected at the distance, and the
instant this light was Obscured-crdshi
and fatal bullet sped on its bloody
errand. In hundreds of similar in
stances the business of killing was re-
duced, by experience, almost to
mechanism. A favorite ruse was for
one man to fire, while three or four
more stood with their rifles leveled,
and the instant that a light puff of
smoke revealed the spot tnat an an
swering ball was coming from, the re-
ports would blend in a small volley,
and the bullets would seek a common
point. Around, overhead, and upon
the outer face of the log, there was a
continual patter, patter, and thlld of
rifle balls; the leaves came down from
above in showers; the bark and
branches of the trees were scfaped and
peeled in long hanging fragments.
The distance between the cOmbatants
was nowhere great; but there were
| points in the lines where only three
or four rods lay between the muzzles,
and here the sharp-shOOting bore all
the painful, weary aspects Of a person.
al combat.
How many were slain and wounded
during this peculiar warfare it is i'm
possible to state in figures. We know
that our own losses were frequent and
heavy, and we have good evidence
that those of the defenders were not
| less so.
After the capitulation General
Banks found in the hospitals of the
besieged five hundred men wounded,
most of them severely, with bullets in
the hedd-the plain sign-manual of
our sharp-shooters. How many of the
Confederate soldiers fell dead at the
loop holes, rifle in hand, is not report
ed.
The limits of this article will not
permit me to mention a tithe of the
many painful and curious casualties
in the rifle pits that came under my
notice. One must suffice. On bright
moonlight night, in the first week of
June, a man Of my company, Chappell
by name, was standing his turn of
duty at the loop-holes. He had just
levelled his rifle, cooked it, and was
sighting it at place in the rebel line
where he thought he saw movement,
when a bullet entered the lOOp-hole.
1t glanced from the muZzle of his rifle,
passed down the barrel, cutting off
both bands from the outside as cleanly
as cold-ehisel could have done it, and
made a round hole through the palm
of poor Chappell's hand as his fore
finger was reaching for the trigger. A
chance shot, does any one suggest?
My dear reader, had you been at Port
Hudson with US land 1 am glad, in
deed, you were not, you would under
stand that nobody tOds killed there By
chance. / have never doubted that
the Confederate, for whose head Chap
pell kindly intended his mimic ball,
caught the flash of a moOnbeam upon
his musket barrel as it was protruded
from the port-hole, and fired Just in
the nick of time. If he had hesitated
three seconds he might have filed
place in the mortuary report the fol-
lowing day, for Chappell was an ex-
cellent shot.
Sucn was our lie IOr uVe weeks IN
the rifle pits before Port Hudson; a
period crowded with dangers, fatigues
and eXcitements, which none of us
who were there will ever care to re-
peat. Very few military situations, l
fancy, call for such a combination of
bravery, endurance and alertness as
this; and it must be said, in honor of
the stout fellows who stood unflinch-
ingly up to their stern duty at those
loOp-holes, that they did it admirably.
None knew the importance of this
service better than General Banks,
and he was often seen in the rifle pits,
encouraging the men with his pres
ence, and studying the peculiarities of
the defenees opposite. By day and by
night, faithfully and persistently, our
brave fellows did their whole duty,
though death and wounds were ali
about them-until at last, spite of the
heroic fighting of their defenders
Vicksburg and Port Hudson fell
together, the great river was opened
from its head-waters to the gulf, the
Confederacy was bisected, and we saw
the beginning Of the end.-Pdckdrd's
Monthly.