The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-02-17
WHOLE NO. 1884
Supporting the Guns.
HOW YIELD RArrEETEs COME INTO Acrroz

HOW YIELD RATTERTEs COME INTO ACTION.
Did You ever see q battery take position
1t hasn't the thrill Of a cavalry charge,
nor the grimness Of q line of baFonets
moving slowly and determinedly on, but
there is q peculiar excitement about It that
makes old veterans rise in their saddles and
cheer.
We have been fighting at the edge Of the
woods. Every cartridge boxhas been emp
tied once more, and q fourth Of a brigade
has melted away in dead and wounded and
missing. Not q cheeris heard in the whole
brigade We know that We are being
driven foot by foot, ana that when ne
break back once more the line VIII 60 U
pieces and the enemy viii pour through
the gap.
Here comes help!
Down the crowded highway gaIlops a
battery, withdrawn from some other posi-
ton to save ours. The field fence IS scat
tered while you count thirty, and the biI
behind Us. Six horses to piece-thres
riders to each gun. Over dry bitches where
a farmer would not drive a WAGON, through
clUmps Of bushes, over logs q foot thick.
every horse on the gaIlop, every rider lash
ing his team and yelling-the sight behind
rs makes Us forget the foe in front. The
guns jump two feet high as the heavy
wheels strike rscks OF logs, but not horse
slackens his pace, not a cannoneer loses
his seat. Six guns, six caissons. sixty
horses, eighty men race for the brow Of the
hill as if he who reaches it first would be
knighted.
A moment ago the battery was confused
mob. We look again and the six guns are
IN position, the detached horses hurryiuE
away, the ammunition chests open, and
along our line runs the command, -Givs
them one more vOlley and fsll back to sup
port the guns!' We have scarcely obeyed,
when boom bOOml opens the battery, and
jets Of fire jump down and scorch the
green trees under which we fought and de-
SPARED.
The shattered old brigade has . chance
to breathe for the frst time in three hours,
and We form a line Of battle behind the
guns and lie down What grim, cool fsl-
lows those cannOneers arel Every nan Is
perfect machine. BalIets splash dust
into their faces but they do not vince.
Bullets sing over and around them but
they do not dodge. There goes one to the
earth, shot through the head as he sponged
his gun The machinery loses Just one
beat-misses just one cog in the wheel
and then works away again as before.
Every gun is using short fuse shell. The
ground shakes and trembles-the roar
shuts out all sounds from a battle line
three miles long, and the shells 20 shrek
into the swamp to cut trees short cd-tO
NOW great gaps In the bushes-t0 hunt out
and shatter and mangle men until their
corpses cannot be recognized as human.
You would think a tornado was bowling
through the forest, followed by billoWs Of
fire, and yet men live through it-aye!
press forward to capture the battery! We
can hear their shouts as they form for
rush.
Now the shells are changed for grape
and canister, and the guns are served 50
fast that ali reports blend into one mighty
roar. The shrek Of q shell is the wicked
est sound in war, but nothing makes the
flesh crawl like the demOniac singing, pur-
ring, Whistling, UapeshOt, and the serpent
like hiss of canister. Mems legs and arms
arc not shot through but torn or Heads
are torn from bodies and bodies cut in two.
A round shot OF shell takes two men out
Of the ranks as it crashes through Grape
and canister nov a sWath, and pile the
dead upon each other.
Through the smoke we see a swarm Of
men. 1t is not a battle line, but q mob Of
men desperate enough to bathe their bayO-
nets in the fame Of the guns. The guns
leap from the ground almost rs they are
on the foe, and shrieks 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 it as q sign Of
and come rushing on. They are
not ten feet away when the guns give then
a last shot. That discharge picks living
men OF their feet and throws men into the
yamP, q blackened, bloody mass.
s Up now, as the enemy. are 'amC2g the
guns There Is a silence Of ten seconds,
and then the fash and roar Of more than
-hree thousand muskets, and a rush forward
With bayOnets. For what Neither on
he right nor left nor IN front Of Us is
living foe! There are eOrpses around Us
which have been struck by three, four, and
wen six bullets, and nowhere on this acre
# ground Is a wounded mani als wheels
If the guns cannot move until the block
.ds-oT dead is removed. Alen cannot pass
rom CaissOn to gun without climbing over
YiuTOWs Of dead. Every gun and wheel
s smeared with bloOd-eTeTy foot Of grass
las its horrible stain.
Historians write Of the glory Of war
3urial parties saw murder where hlst0-
ians saw glOTy--DaTOt Free Press.