Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-07-17
4 MILITARY MUSEUM
Interesting Collection of war Relics
at Washi1gtOn.

SOlulelS UNIFORMS, anu every lulHS''"''u
variety Of gun and shell. But among these
objects, rather uninteresting TO civil eyes,
are a number of relics whose associations
appeal Immediately TO the most Indifferent
For instance, here is the carriage of the
first gun fired in the rebellion, presented
by Maior-General r. J. Wood, after the
capture of Nicksburg, whore he found it.
The man who fired it told him he aimed at
boat bound for New Orleans, aud sup
posed to he loaded with government stores
about week before the firing of Sumter.
The gun was II iuur-pound cannon, and the
carriage is shabby, faded red affair. Lean
ing against ii arc some halberds aud swords
of the fourteenth century, bought 10y NC
ordnance commission from Geneva, aud an
awkward weapon labelled, "Albanan Gun
from Missolonghi," such perhaps as poor
Byron fought with. Then there are iron
clubs used in Mexico before cannon were
invented. On one Of them is scratched
"Isidro Pratt" Some legend attributes
them to Cortez marauders, and If we choose
we may so believe, but somehow an Amer
lean cicerOne never tells II tradition con-
vincingly. II he drops into legend it is
alphabetically explained that he neither be-
lovcs it himself nor expects you To. lie
never tells it with that profound faith and
revel euce, that catholic submission of in
divihual opinion, that any unwashed de-
scendant of Numa Pompilius assumes be-
fore Il tanonized leg bone. | never heard
of but one of whom the American spirit OF
skepticism prevailed. In one corner of
our museum is a coat-ofmail and two
handed sword-lhat il, Il sword to he used
by either hand-datCd from the sixteenth
century, from Bavaria; also a fac-simile of
the first gun ever made, from the same
country. The butt is beautifully orna-
meuted with silver carving representing
battle fought with bows and arrows-a little
quiet bit OF sarcasm ON the part of this
usurper who was to drive this weapon from
the field. Near this is a heavy Moorish
gun, and delicate scimiter with crescent
stamped on its flexible blade, tempered
possibly ut Toledo, and welded, let us
fancy, by some swarthy Moorish warrior
on the ramparts of Granada. Thea comes
an Indian war club, too dreadfully familiar
to be pOetical, and an ordinary musket
turned into breech loader by the Fenans
when they marched into Canada. 1t bears
the monogram az. II. A.-Irish republic
can army. Poor Pat: He never amounts
to much when he drops the shillalah!
Here is a real relief One that brings the
color to our cheeks as we grasp it one of
those farm rakes turned into a spear at
Hnrper's Ferry, by the old man whose soul
"goes marching on" Aud in appropriate
propinquity to this battered, rusty pike is
an excellent English rifle made by the
maker who has The honor of furnishing
such biouterie "to her majesty the queen
and the prince cousort," worth $500 in gold.
Probably the gentleman had 10 squeeze that
$500 out of her majesty the queen, by some
ingenuity, for | fancy he will not get much
out of Mr.. Floyd, who ordered the rifle
when secretary of war, but whom it has
never reached. Horace Capron contributes
two strange, antique swords, taken from an
armory in Atlanta; a sword taken from
the rebel General Barksdale, formerly NJ.
C. as he lay dead on Gettysburg field, and a
japanese sword presented by Mori. a
very interesting copy is a cuirass and
dan. The cuirass is pierced by bullet,
and the helmet cloven by saber stroke
that must have proved mortal to the poor
fellow, who fell, perhaps with sigh for
the sun of Austerlitz, that had set in such
ignominy. The helmet is a beautiful piece
of workmanship. The ridge at the back
Stimulates a blade, and from it hangs the
long horse-h hair tassel. The front pompon
is held by a griflin's claw; the sides are
exqustely wrought, and directly in front
is Medusas head, finely carved and full of
expression. Then there is an old cannon
captured at Yorktown; another of bronze
presented by the Saratoga convention in
| l777 a shell fired into New Orleans in
| 1916; one gun of a Whitworth battery,
with range of seven miles, presented by
| the "loyal citizens of the United States of
| America, England, 1851" Also, a model
of the "coffee-mill gum" and a gun that
| could be carried on and fired from mules
back two Gatlin guns, one that can be dis
charged 100 times and the other 400 times a
minute. There is a twenty-inch cannon
ball. weighing 1880 pounds, made for. the
largest cannon in America, now at Fortress
Monroe, which costs SIPS every time it is
discharged. Then we came to a mountain
| howitzer, such as we used to illustrate the
peace commission to the Modocs; and last,
the stump of an oak tree, some fifty inches
in diameter, that was actually cut down by
| bullets before Petersburg.
Drsped around the walls, hanging from
| the pillars, or dropping mournfully over
| the door, deiaced, war-stained, and showing
many traces of hard struggles, are four
| hundred and forty rebel flags, captured by
our troops. Nearly all have some history
told of them. All have a story of their own,
no doubt, could they but tell it. A large
| percentage of them was captured by Gen.
Clusters men, and several belonged to Cor
| don's troops. Think ofit-his flags among
| the spoils of battle, and he in the Senate of
| the nation that took them The "stars and
bars''-the circle of stars on blue field,
and the three broad bands of red, white
and red. One, the bonnie blue flag
that bears a single star" the only silken
flag in the colection-is literally in ribbons.
1t was presented TO a southern regiment by
| the ladies of the city, and when its bearer
was attacked, he pulled il from its staff and
tried to tear it into atoms. Another was
captured ON Lookout Mountain, in the
"battle Of the clouds" that lIowells sings
of. There hung the famous black flag of
Winchester, whose supposed horrible sig
nificance mad dened the northern troops
Sheridan says, however, it was only a sig
nal. 1t is a small black flag with a white
cross in the center. There is the garrison
flag of Fort Ripley, Charleston Harbor
One captured in the Wilderness that looks
very much like the British union-jack
another with the southern cross" marked
in stars on blue ground; an immense one