Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1880-11-04
Supporting the Guns.
now FIELD BATTERIES COMM INTO ACTION.
Did You ever see a battery take position ?

Did You ever see battery take position
1t hasn't the thrill of cavalry charge,
nor the grimness Of line of bayonets
moving slowly and determinedly ON, but
there is peculiar excitement about it that
makes Old veterans rise IN their saddles and
cheer
We have been lighting at the edge ofthe
woods. Every cartridge box has been emp
tied once more, and fourth Of brigade
has melted away in dead and wounded and
missing Not II cheer is heard in the whole
brigade. We know that we are being
driven foot 10y foot, and that when we
break back once moro the line will 20 TO
pieces and the enemy will pour through
the gap,
Here comes help!
Down the crowded highway gallops n
battery, withdrawn from some other posi-
ton to Slye ours, The field fence is scat
tered while You count thirty, and the Hill
behind us. Six horses to a picce-thrce
riders to each gun. Over dry bitches where
a farmer would not drive "A wagon. through
clumpS of bushes over logs foot thick,
2vcry horse ON the gallon, every rider LASH
ing his team and yelling-the sight behind
us makes us forget the foe IL front. The
guns jump two feet high rs the heavy
wheels strike rocks or logs, but not horse
Slackcns his pace, not Cannouccr loses
his seat SIX guns, six caissons sixty
horses, eighty men race for the brow of the
hill rs if he who reaches il first would be
knighted
\ moment ago the battery was a confused
mob. We look again and the six guns are
i'll position, the detached horses hurrying
away, the ammunition chests open, and
along our line runs the command, Give
4 them one more vollcy and fall back to sup
port the gunSm We have scarcely oheycd
when boom boom! opens the battery, and
/ Jets of fire jump down and sc0rch the
green trees under which We fought and de-
I SPARED,
! The shattered old brigade has chance
/ to breathe for the first time in three hours,
/ and we form n line of battle behind the
guns and lie down. What grim, cool fell
/ lows those canuoneers are Every man is
a perfect machine. Bullets splash dust
/ into their faces but they do not vince.
/ Bullets sing over and around them hut
i they do not dodge. There goes one TO the
1 earth, shot through the head rs he spougcd
his gun The machinery loses just one
/ beat-misses just one cog in the wheel
and then works away again as before,
1 Every gun Is using short fuse she'll. The
ground shakes and trembles-the roar
shuts out all sounds from battle line
three miles long, and the shells go shrek
into the swamp TO cut trees short oil.-to
NOW great gaps IN the bushes--to hunt ont
and shatter and mangle men until their
corpscs cannot be recognized as human.
You would think n tornado was bowling
through the forest, followed by pillows of
fire, and yet men live through it--ayei
press coward to capture the battery. We
can hear their shouts as they form for a
rush.
Now the shells are changed for grape
and caniste", and the guns are served SO
fast that all reports blend into one mighty
roar. The shrek of u shcll is the wicked
/ est sound in war, but nothing makes the
/ flesh crawl like the demoniac singing, pur-
ring whstling, grapeshot and the serpent
like hiss of canister. Mems legs and arms
are not shot through but torn Oh, Heads
are torn from bodies and bodies cut in two
round shot or shell takes two men out
of the ranks AZ it crashes through Grape
and canister NOW Il swath, and pile the
dead upon each other.
Through the smoke we see swarm of
men. 1t is not battle line, but Il mob Of
men desperate enough to battle their bayo-
nets in the flame of the guns. The guns
leap from the ground almost rs they are
depressed ON the foe, and shrlcks and
screames and shouts blend into one awful
and steady cry. Twenty men out on The
battery are down and the firing IS inter
| rupted. The foe accepts 1t rs sign OF
wayering, and come rushing on. They are
not ten feet away when the guns give them
q last shot. That discharge picks living
men off their feet and throws men into the
swamp, a backcncd, bloody mass.
Up now, as the enemy are among the
guns There is n silence OF ten seconds,
and then the flash and roar of more than
three thousand muskets, and a rush forward
with bay0ncts For whatY Neither on
the right nor 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 a wounded man The wheels
of the guns cannot move until the block
ade of dead is removed Men cannot pass
from caisson to gun without climbing over
winrows of dead Every gun and wheel
is smcarcd with blood every foot OF grass
has its horrible stain.
Historians write of the glory Of war
Burial parties saw murder where hlsto-