The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1880-05-08
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There is nothing connected with a
battle so exciting as to see battery OF
flying artillery take position. Troops
upon right and left, drivers lash and
shout, horses plunge and rear, and
guns and caissons dash through and
over everything until reaching the
chosen spot. A line of men waiting
for the fight to open will 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 viii say that an army could be sue
cessful without artillery, and yet those
who hold the cannon's mouth to be a
king OF terrors or the jaws of certain
destruction, viii 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: ''lde would
not be afraid to march up to the can
mons mouth and yet it is not high
compliment to his bravery. Dust pre-
vious to the first fight at Bull Run, a
brigade Of infantry made a reconnois-
salice towards Blackburn Ford TO see
how the enemy was posted. A Mlchl-
gan 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 a man in the regiment was even
wounded. Massachusetts, troops, adj
vancing into the woods, fought against
cannon mounted on earthworks 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 aud shell were utterly
wasted.
During the Sundays fight at Bull
Run full battery, posted on the LETT,
and just outside the fght, kept up
continuous and rapid fire on a highway
three-quarters 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 kill
ing 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, aud shells went
screaming 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 the whole day by
shot or shell.
The daily papers used to make a
great stir over artillery duels, which
were pronounced fiendish and blood
thirsty. At Antietam a Union and
Confederate battery, not over half
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 Union loss was a 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 that
had been occupied by the Confederate
battery, and there were found two dis
abled horses, dead artillerist, and the
wreck of a caisson. During the forty
minutes that these twelve guns were
banging away with such little result.
four or five ssharp-shooters, Just to the
right, killed more than a dozen men
and made NO fuss over it.