Daily Republican. [volume] ([Wilmington, Del.]) 1874-1890, 1881-02-16
SUPPORTING the GUNS.
Graphic Pen Picture OF Lsnd En-
Kagomens.

2 Graphic Pen Picture OF q Land II
xagomens.
4 Did you ever see battery take pos
0 tom
IL hasn't the thrill Of cavalry eharg.
q nor the grimness OF line Of bayonet
, moving slowly and determ.nsdly on
| bat there is . peculiar excitement abou
. 1t that makes old veterans rise In thei
, saddles and cheer. We have beer
. fighting At the edge Of tho woods
, kvery cartridge box has been emptisd
} once and more, and fourth Of the bri
gsds has melted away In dead and
wounded and missing. Not . cheer Ia
, heard in tbs. whole brigade. We know
that we are being driven foot by foot,
, and that when we break back once
more the liue will so TO pieces and the
enemy will pour through the gap.
Here comes help! Down the crowd
ed highway gallops q battery, with
drawn from some ether position to save
ours. The field fence is scattered
while you could count thirty, and the
lsunp rush for the hill behind us. Six
horses to piece three riders to each
lgun. Over dry bitches where farmer
would not drive q wagon, through
olumps Of bushes, over logs q foot
thick, every horse on the gallop, every
rider lashing his team and yelling
the sight behind us makes Us forget
the foe in front. The guns jump two
feet high As the heavy wheels strike
rock or log, but not a horse slaekeps
his pace, not cannoner loses his seat.
Six guns, six oaissons, sixty horses,
Lightly men race for the brow Of the
hill as II he who reached II first would
be knighted. A moment ago the bat
terry was a confused mob.
We look again and the six guns are
in position, the detached horses hut
rying away, the ammunition chests op.
en-, and along our line runs the COM
msnd: "Give them one more vollsy and
tall back to support the guns' We have
scarcely obeyed when boom boom op
ems tho battery, and jets Of fire jump
down and sooreh the green grass up
on which We fought and despaired.
The shattered old brigade has ehAncs
TO breathe for the first time in three
hours as We form line Of battle behind
the guns and lie down. What grim,
cool fellows those cannoneers are! Bv.
cry man is q perfect machinel Bullets
splash dust into their faces, bat they
do not winoe. Bullets sing over and
around them, but they DO not dodge.
Th ere goes one 10 the earth, shot
through the head as he sponged his
gun. The machinery loses last one
beat-missss just one cog in the wheel
And then works away again as be-
fore. Every gun is using short fuse
shell. The ground shakes and trem-
blss--ths roar shuts out all sounds
from q battle line three miles lsng, aud
the shells 90 shrleking into the swamp
to sut trees short Off TO, new great gaps
in the bnshes--to hunt out and shat.
ter and mangle men until their corpses
cannot be recognised IS human.
You would think tornado was howl.
ing through the forest, followed by
pillows Of Are, and yet men live through
it-aysl 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 gRns are served
80 fast that all reports blend into enc
mighty roar. The shrek OF a shell is
the wickedest sound in war, bat moth
ing makes the flesh crawl like the de-
mOnisc einging, purring, vhistling
Igrapesho! and the Serpent-like hiss Of
canister. Mems legs and arms are not
shot through, but torn Of. Heads are
torn from bodies and bodies cut In two.
A round shot OF shell takes two men
ont Of the ranks as 1t crashes through.
Grspe and canister NOW swsth and
pile tho dead on top Of each other.
Through the smoke We see swarm of
men. II is not a battle line, but mob
Of men desperate enough to battle their
bayoneIs in the fame OF the guns. The
guns leap from the ground almost IS
they are depressed on the foe, and
shrieks and screams and shouts blepd
into ono awful and steady cry. Twenty
men cat on the battery are down, and
the firing ia interrupted. The foe &C.
sept It as a sign Of w&vering and come
on. They are not tn feet
away when the guns give the last shot.
The discharge picks living men of |
their feet and throws them into a
swamp, a blaOksned, bloody mass. Up |
now, as the enemy are among the guns
There Is silence Of ten seconds, and
then tho fash and roar Of more than
three thousand muskets, aud a rush
forward with bayonets. For what
Neither on the right nor left nor In
'front.' Of us Is living foe Thsre are
,orpsss around US which have been
struck by three, four and even six bull
ets, and nowhere on this acre of ground
IS q wounded man! The wheels Of the
runs cannot move until the blockade OF
lead Is removed. Men cannot pass
rom eaisson to gun without climbing
'ver winrows Of dead. Every gun and
Wheel is smeared with blood-evsry
GOT OF grass has its horrible stain.
Historians write Of the glory Of var.
burial parties saw murder where histo.