The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-04-27
Queer Things I'm War.

QuCcf lMBes III Nur.
Men might write for thousand
years of the curious phases OF war
and stll leave the subject fresh.
War is a lottery, and tho prizes are
shot, and shell, wounds and death
Tens of thousands of men served
four years in the late war and re-
turned home. In a Thousand cases
recruits were killed within twenty
four hoars after reaching the front.
Wars ~ ssels are no respectors of
persons. and the soldier who fights
an all days battIc without receiving
a wound may be killed in his tent
at night by the accidental discharge
of a musket.
At the battle of Franklin, the first
shell sent from the first Union field
piece to open fire killed 26 Confed-
crates. The next five shells from
this same gun failed to explode or
clear the advancing lines. In the
same battle a horse of confederate
colonel was cut square in two by 4
shot and the rider escaped unhurt.
Ten minutes ait,r Union officer
behind the eafthworks stumbled
and fell forward to the ground and
broke his neck.
In one Of the assaults on Fort
Wagner, in Charleston harbor. the
iron clad fleet, assisted by land bat
teries numbering twenty-seven hea-
w cannon, bombarded the fort for
two hours before killing single sol
dier. From seventy to eighty can
non were hurting three tons OF iron
into the fort each minute, and yet
no one was hurt until over ninety
tons of solid death had been vast
ed. AS an offset to this, witness the
work of a single shot thrown from a
federal gunboat on the lower Mis-
sissippi.
a confederate flying battery was
just taking position, and one piece
had already opened fire The fed
eral shot was directed at this piece.
The big mass of iron struck the six
FOUNDER on the muzzle and upset
gun and carriage. A piece of the
muzzle weighing about twenty
pounds, was broken off, and this
piece flew to the left and killed two
men. Three men were wounded bv
smaller fragments of flying splinters.
The big shot next struck and explo-
ded a caisson, killing three more
men and wounding two others.
From the caisson it turned to the
right, killing horse, smashing a
wheel for a field piece and crushing
the leg of a sergeant to bloody
mass. That one shot so disorgan
lied the battery that it limbered up
and dashed away TO cover.
While heavy ordnance is neces-
sary in reducing earthworks, it is
doubtful if there is any profit i'll the
work of big guns carried by iron
clads on the rivers. When McClel-
len fell back be had the cover of the
gunboats, and some writers have
claimed that their fire saved the
army from capture. So far as the
confederate record shows the loss
by the hundreds of enormous shells
thrown over the heads of our troops
into the woods by these great can
non did not amount to hundred
men. They were a new thing then,
and the effect of the awful crash
and tremendous explosions were de-
moralizing on the troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White
river threw three shells into con-
federate camp, killing nearly fifty
men and routed a force of 500.
Within a week after that event the
Confederate General Shelby planted
four pieces of flying artillery on the
levee within 400 feet of the same
gunboat at anchor, and, without the
least cover for men or guns, kept up
the fight for an hour, or until the
gunboat backed out of it and steam
ed away.
The chances in q lottery can be
figured down fine, and certain per
cent. of escapes is allowed i'll
steamboat explosion, but he who
goes to war has nothing to console
him. He may dodge 200 pound
shell and be killed by two buck
shot. He may receive a dozen bull
lets and live on, or the first one may
be fatal, He may ride in the wild
est charges unhurt, and he may be
killed by stray bullet beside his
camp fire.