The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1880-03-06
THE CANNON'S MOUTH.
Mon Have Been There, and Yet Died OF
Old Age.

Men Have Been There, and Yet Died of
From the Detroit Free Pressl
There is nothing connected with q
battle so exciting as to see battery of
flying artillery take position. Troops
open right and left, drivers lash and
shout, horses plunge and rear, and guns
and caissons dash through and over
every thing until reaching the chosen
spot. A line of men waiting for the
fight to open viii show pluck and
enthusiasm with the booming of the
first gun, and the faster the battery is
worked the more impatient will the
supports become for close work. No
one will say that an army could be sue
cessfuf without artillery, and yet those
who hold the lannon's mouth" to be
king of terrors or the jaws of certain
destruction will feel disappointed when
they come across statistics showing how
little damage is inflicted by cannon
compared with the musket.
1t is often said of man: "He
would not be afraid to march up to the
lannon's mouth" and yet it is not
high compliment to his bravery. Just
previous to the first fight at Bull Run
brigade of infantry made reconnois-
sance towards Blackburn's Ford to see
how the enemy was posted. A Michigan
regiment, in reserve just outside the
fight, was opened on by six field pieces
in plain sight. The firing was rapid
and lasted for half an hour, and yet not
man in the regiment was even wound
ed. Massachusetts, troops, advancing
into the woods, fought against cannon
mounted on an earth-work for fully
twenty minutes, and yet all their loss
was from the musketry of foreign
troops. On this occasion no less than
200 round-shot and shell were utterly
wasted.
During the Sunday fight at Bull Run,
full battery, posted on the left, and just
outside the fight, kept up continuous
and rapid fire on a highway three-quar-
tiers of mile away, over which the
Confederates were marching as they
went into action or changed positions.
Shot and shell could be seen to strike,
and outside of tearing a cover off an
army wagon, and the killing of horse
or two, no damage was done.
At Fair Oaks the artillery fire was
fierce, and seemingly destructive. Trees
were rent and shivered. great burrows
plowed in the ground, and shells
screamed everywhere over the battle
field. Yet the loss of life by musketry
was in the proportion of twenty to one.
The Third Michigan Infantry lost more
men in five minutes by infantry fire than
any brigade lost all day by shot or shell.
The daily papers used to make great
ado over artillery duels, which were
pronounced fiendish, blood-thirsty and
so forth. At Antietam Union and a
Confederate battery, not over half a
mile apart and in plain sight of each
other, had one of these duels, lasting
forty minutes. The guns were worked
for all they were worth, and when the
duel ended the loss was horse killed,
the wheel of caisson shattered and two
infantry men lying in support killed.
A change of position sent the writer's
regiment over, the ground occupied by
/ the Confederate battery, and here was
found two disabled horses, dead artil-
lerist and the wreck of caisson. Dur
ing the forty minutes that these twelve
guns were banging away with such little
result four or five sharp shooters just to
the right killed more than dozen men
and made no fuss over it. E
Lee had splendid position for his
artillery at Fredericksburg, yet the
Union troops swept forward unmindful
of the fire until they reached the point
where the Confederate infantry could
begin work Shells exploded in the air
or beyond the line, round-shot took men
singly, and no great damage was done
until grape and canister came into
play. The Union guns on the other
bank of the river, numbering at least
one hundred and fifty, doomed away for
several hours at the town and at Lees
troops above, yet they did not cripple
/ the enemy as much as the fire from a
single infantry regiment.
I At Savage Station, when Mcclellan
was changing base, q Union battery was
charged by a Confederate regiment.
They came across an open field, in plain
view and on level ground, with six guns
playing away on them, yet they cap
tured the battery with loss of only
i. eleven men killed, and four of these
were killed by one shell. A Union regi-
ment rallied on the guns, fought over
them hand to hand and recaptured
them, and in ten minutes each regiment
lost over hundred men.
1t is popularity supposed to be for
lorn hope when men rush forward on a
battery, but any old soldier would take
his chances there sooner than in trying
to dislodge infantry from the cover of a
stout rail fence. At Second Bull Run
the writer's regiment swept forward to
capture some field pieces which had got
their range down fine and were creating
considerable havoc. A.ta
There were four cannon, and they
covered about the same front that the
advancing, regiment did, They used