Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1881-12-08
RECOLLECTIONS OF A DRUMMER-BOY.
By HARRY NJ. KIErER.
HOW WE GOT A sHELL1Ne.

The men are in goods spirits and ready
for the fray, but as the day wears on
without surther developments, arms are
stacked, and we begin to roam about
the hills; some are writing letters home.
some sleeping, some even fishing in q
little rivulet that runs by US, when to-
ward three o'clock in the afternoon, and
all of sudden, the enemy opens fire on
us with salute Of three shells fred in
rapid succession, not quite into our
ranks, but little to the left of US; and
seei over where the Forty third lies, to
our left, come three stretcherS, going by
on lively trot to the rear; for 'the ball
is opening, boys" and we are undey fire
for the first time. =.
1 wish could convey to the readers
of st. Nicholas some faint idea of the
noise by a shell as it flies shrieking and
screaming through the air, and of that
peculiar tohiTring sound made by the
pieces after the shell hrs burst over
head or by your side. So loud, high
pitched, shrill, and terrible is the sound,
that one unaccustomed to it would think
at first that the very heavens were being
torn down about his earsl
How often have l laughed at myself
when thinking OF that first shelling we
got there by the riveri For, up to that
time, / had had a very poor, old-fash-
oined idea of what a shell was like,hav
ing derived it probably from accounts of
sieges in the Mexican war.
b.,d thnuoht shall uvoa hO1In M
ball of iron, filled with powder and fur
nished with fuse, and that they threw
it into your ranks. and there it lay, hiss
ing and splitting, till the fire reached the
powder, and the shell burst and killed v
dozen men or so-that is, if some ven-
turesome fellow didn't run up and stamp
the fire off the fuse before the miserable
thing went off OF a coSaicat shell,
shaped like minie-ball, with ridges on
the outside to fit the grooves of rified
cannon, and exploding by a percussion
cap at the pointed end, had no idea in
the world. But that was the sort Of
thing they were firing at US now-Hur-
r-r-bangl Hur-r-r--bangl
Throwing myself fiat on my face while
that terrible shrek is in the air, cling
closer to the ground while / hear that
low, whirring sound near by, which /
foolishly imagine to be the sound of
burning fuse, but which, on raising my
head and looking up and around, 1 find
is the sound of pieces OF exploded shells
flying Through the air about our heads !
The enemy has excellent range of us,
and gives it to ds hot and fast, and we
fall in line and take it as best we may,
and without the pleasure of replying. for
the enemy's batteries are a full mile and
a half away, and no Enfield rife can
reach half so far.
"Colonel, move your regiment little
20 the right, so as to get under cover of
yonder bank" It is soon done; and
there, seated on a bank about twenty
feet high, with our backs to the enemy,
we let them blaze away.
And now, seei just to the rear of us,
and therefore in full view as we are sit
ting, is battery of our own, coming up
into position at full gallop-a grand
sight indeedi The officers with swords
flashing in the evening sunlight, the bu-
giles changing out the orders, the carri-
ages unlimbered, and the guns run into |
position: and now, that ever beautiful |
drill of the artillery in action, steady |
and regular as the stroke of machineryil |
How swiftly the man that handles the |
swab has prepared his piece, while the
runners have meanwhile brought up the
little red bag of powder and the long,
conical shell from the caisson In the
rearl How swiftly they are rammed
homel The lieutenant sights his piece,
the man with the lanyard with a sudden
Jerk fires the cap, the gun leaps five feet
to the rear with the recoil. and out, of
the cannon's throat, in cloud ofsmoke,
rushes the shell, shrieking out its mes
sage of death into the lines a mile and q
aalf away, while our boys read the air