Western Reserve chronicle. [volume] (Warren, Ohio) 1855-1921, 1869-03-31
IN THE RIFLE PITS.
BY ]. FRANKLIN Fits.

II Is NGuGIdl DdllhS OIuGl, be1O
an aide to our Colonel, ''that the Off
GERS shall take off, at once, every
badge and mark of rank. The NOR
tality among officers, from sharp
shooters, is frightful, and it is best
not to furnish them no particular in
ducements to shoot US"
We cheerfully complied with this
reasonable and thoughtful command
and when 1 had cut off from the
breast of my blouse the little gilt ring,
inclosing two minute bars, / appeared
with none of the decorations, and, in
fact, with none of the distinguished
garments of an officer. Active cam
paigning is rough-and-tumble work,
and when it has continued awhile you
will find eolOnels, majors, and captains
glad to avail themselves of the coarse
woolen shirts, short blouses of dark
blue flannel, and pants of sky-blue
wool, which is the ordinary fatigue
dress of the men. And this was the
dress which I, in common with hun
dreds of my brother officers, were
glad to wear during that turmoil of
fire and blood that ragged along the
Mississippi during that crisis-time of
the war, the early summer of 1853.
1t was about noon of the 31st of
May that my regiment reached our
beseiged lines around Port Hudson,
and received the order with which
NV sketch begins. Moving on
through great forests of cotton wood
and magnolia, scanned and SCARED
with the destructive flight of round
shot and shell, which for week had
sing almost entirely around the lines,
at last reached our place on the right,
in Growers division. The seige was
humming all about us; caravans of
wagons, laden with provision and
ammunition, were on the move; reg
iments of infantry and batteries of
artillery were hurrying hither and
thither, and also fatigue parties and
working details, with spades and
picks a-shoulder; couriers, orderlies,
and staff officers were dashing past,
speeding with orders to various parts
of the lines; and once we cheered the
commanding general as he rode by,
bowling, and relaxing his resolute
mouth into a smile. But this was no
place for military compliments; the
echoes of our shout had not died when
a sullen roar, a quarter of mile away,
disturbed the air, and a thirty-two
pound shot rushed overhead, striking
the top of a tall tree, and strewing its
splinters on US. l never heard anoth-
er cheer outside Port Hudson!
We passed that first night in deep
ravine, back of a battery, which,
masked by pile of cotton bales, made
the night hideOus with frequent dis
charges. There was a magnificent
emphasis in the tones of those great
guns-when they spoke from our side.
Their ponderOus explosions seemed
not only combative but defiant; and
Wearied though we were with the
march that brought us here, their
noise was a lullaby of safety, which
soothed many of US TO slumber. But
often, indeed, through the hours of
that first nights exposure to this up
roar of q siege, my dreams ended with
a sharp rattle of rifle shots, an unusu-
ally loud and angry outbreak of artil-
lery, or the bouncing and plunging of
a huge globe of iron into the side of
the hill Just across the ravine from
where we lay, The night, as well as
the day, at Port Hudson, was filled
with noise of the contending armies,
as they toiled, and watched, and
wrestled with steel, iron, lead and
gunpowder, for each others destruc-
ton.
Morning came; with it a sparing
ration of hard bread, and large one
of anticipation, then the order, "Let
the Hath move up into the rifle pits" I"
Much has been written-indeed, my
own pen has not been entirely quiet
about the terrible collisions which oc-
CURED in front of this formidable
stronghold of the Lower Mississippi,
on the 9th of May and the 18th of
June, when our army hurled itself,
like a mighty battering ram, upon the
defences which the war department at
Richmond exulted in believing i'm
pregnable. The whole annals of the
great war may be searched in vain for
culinary fighting than that which at
tended these two attempts to take
Port Hudson by assault. Never since
wars begun was stOuter. or better de-
fence made than that of General
Gardner and his command; and as
for the investing army-I have it per-
S0nally from the lips OF zen. Banks,
that upon the day of the capitulation
the remnant of his troops, with which
he took possession, tCus actually less an
number than those surrendered! Dis
ease, exhaustion, and the bullet, had
stricken that gallant corps down by
the thousand, and hardly a third of
the army which fought the good fight
of May 9th was there to see the re-
ward of their labors on the 9th of
July. 1t is not, however, my present
purpose to describe the awful rush,
and roar, and whirl of those startling
and memorable days of fire and blood;
L desire to pen a few paragraphs upon
a subject which, full of interest as it is,
has been very little written about
our daily life, and its excitements, be-
fore the rebel works at Port Hudson.
When sieges are spoken of, the word
naturally suggests some great walled
city, with frowning bastiOns, but
tressed and fortressed on every side,
and mighty army encircling it upon
an open plain, with batteries planted
in full view. Very little of that had
we at Port Hudson-which is nothing
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