Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1880-12-07
Detroit Free Press.
SUPPORTING THE GUNS.
How 4 FIELD BATTERY Cones INTo
ACTIoN.

Did YOU ever see battery take posi-
ton
1t hasn't the thrill of a cavalry charge
nor the grimness of line of bayonets
moving slowly and determinediy on, but
there is peculiar excitement about 1t
that makes old veterans rise in their sad
dies and cheer,
We have been fighting on the edge OF
the woods. Every cartridge box had
been emptied once and more, and fourth
Of the brigade has melted away in dead,
wounded and missing. Not cheer is
heard in the whole brigade. We know
we are being driven foot by foot, and
that when we break back once more the
line will 60 to pieces and the enemy Will
pour through the gap.
Here comes help.
Down the crowded highway gallops a
battery, withdrawn from some other posi-
ton TO ours. The field fence Is scattered
while YOU could count thirty, and the
guns rush for the hill behind Us. Six
horses to a piece-,hree riders to each
gun. Over dry bitches where farmer
would no, drive a wagon, through clumpS
OF bushes. over logs foot thick, every
rider yelling-the sight behind us makes
US forget the foe in front. The guns
lump two feet high as the heavy wheels
strike rock or log. but not horse slack
ems his pace, not cannoneer loses ms
seat. Six guns, six caissons, sixty
horses, eighty men, race for the brow
of the hill as if he who reached It first
would be kuighted.
a moment ago the battery was con-
fused mob. We lcok again, and the SIX
guns are in position, the detached horses
hmrying away, the ammunition c.cStS
open, and along our line nuns the com
mand Give them one more volley and
fall back to support the guns :, We
have scarcely obeyed, when boom boom
boom opens the battery, aud jets OF ire
lump down and scorch the trees under
which we fought and despaired.
The shattered old brigade has chance
to breathe Tor the first time in three hours
IS We form a line OF battle behind the
guns and lie down. What grim. cool
fellows those cannonecrs are Ever!
man is a perfect machine. Bullets pIaSt
dust into their faces, but they do not
vince. Bullets sing over and around
them, but they do not dodge. There
goes one OF them to the earth, shot
through tho head as he spunged his gun.
The machinery loses just one heat-miS-
,es jus, one cog in the whcel-and then
works away again as before.
Every gun is using short fuse she'll.
The ground shakes aud trcmbles-;he
roar shuts ont all sounds from a battle
line three miles long and the shells 20
,hrieklng into the swamp to cut trees
short off 49, to NOW great gaps m the
bushes - to hunt out and scatter and
manglc men until their corpscs cannot be
recognized as human. You would think
tornado was bowling through the forest,
followed by pillows of firc, and yet men
live through it-aye, press forward to
capture the battery. We can hear their
shouts as they form for u ruth
Now the she'll is changed for grape and
canister. and the guns ale served so fast
tina, all reports blend into one mighty roar
The shrek of a shell is the wickedcs'
sound in war. but nothing makes the flesh
crawl like the demoniac singing, purung'
whi,tling grapesho, and the scrpan,likc
his. of canister. Mems legs and arms
are not shot through, bu; torn OFT. Heads
are torn from bodies and bodies cut IN
two. A round shot or shell takes two
men out Of the ranks as it crashes through.
Grape and canister NOW swath and pile
the dead on top OF each other
Though the smoke We see a swarm OF
men. 1t is not battle line, but mob
of men desperate enough to battle their
bayonets in the flame of guns. The guns
leap from the ground almost as they are
depressed on the foe and shrieks and
screams and shouts blend into one awful
and steady cry. Twenty men out at
the battery are down, and the firing Is
interrupted. The foe accept 1t as sign
of wayering and come rushing on. They
are not ten feet away when the guns give
them a last shot. That discharge picks
living men off their feet, and throws
them into the swamp, blackened and
bloody mass.
Up now, as the enemy are among the
guns There is silence of ten seconds,
and then the dash and roar OF three thou
sand muskets and rush forward with
bayonets. For what Neither on the
right nor the left nor in front OF us is a
living foe There are corpSes around us
which have been struck by three, four and
even six bullets, and nowhere on this
acre of ground is wounded man The
wheels OF the guns cannot move until the
blockade of dead is removed. Men can
not pass from caisson to gun without
climbing over winrows of dead. Every
gun and wheel is smeared with blood
every foot of has horrible stain.
Historians write OF the glory Of war.
Burial parties saw murder where hlstori-
ans saw glory.
AIDERs AND HARDHAcKs.-"A Sub
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