Morning journal and courier., 1881-02-16
The CannOn's Story.
From the Detroit Free Press.

My name We'll I've had several. When was taken from the navy-yard long years ago and mounted in battery on the Potomac they called me "Pet." l was the smallest gun in the battery, and from the way l had of knocking the enemy about the gunners came to love me. Then I made the sixth gun in field battery and was with Mcclellan on his Peninsula campaign. l was a luehy gun from the start. Would you heiIeye .na. never even lost wheel until my lo'n nen' was almost ended? Some cannon are ai"aSs in trouble There were two pieces Tn my battery which might better have been left at home They looked handsome on review, but in action they had hundred excuses for not standing up to their work. The am muntion was poor the shells too large-the pround unfavorable-the range imperfect- something was the matter every time they were called to the front.
 AS for me, like to see cannon stand
 right up to it's work. Ask any one who knows, me and they will tell you that was tighter If had kept list of the number of army
 waoons and ambulances I have knocked to pieces and the number of men and horses l
 have killed you would open eyes ln surprise
 I have been attached to no less than SIX different brigades of infantry, three different
 brigades of cavalry and have been posted ln two forts and one earthwork. Ask any ar tillery man if tha' isn't a good record. have been struck over 100 times by bullets, grape shot and pieces of shell, but you see that am good for another campaign was personally acquainted with Mcdowell, Rich ardson, Kearney Burnside. Mcclellan,
 Hooker, Custer, Fitzpatrick, Sheridan, Grant and several others and believe that l have
 received words of praise from all of them. And yet have stain on my record. Some times I am sorry about 1t and agaln am glad. don't think any of the men laid 1t up against me, but yet it was break in my re- cord. They had sent me over into the Shenandoah valley to fight with Sheridan, | and joined him only five days before the battle of Cedar Creek. When the men came l to count my. scars and look me over they agreed among themselves that was trusty piece, and they rejoieed that I had come among them Such talk as this naturally | made me anxious to provestrue all they had l predicted and it was with feeling ot deep l satisfaction that I saw the battle of Cedar | Creek commence. In 10 minutes after the l first alarm was throwing shell among the enemy, and the men around me were | shouting
 ''Give it to lem, beauty; you're shooting as | true as rifle :"
 | don't care to tell you the part took in | that affair." but you can judge that was at the front by the fact that I was hit by bullets no less than 12 times, and every spoke in my | wheels had a stain of blood. As the fight
 grew hot I forgot myself in my desire to l main and kill. In my eagerness to slay ,!
 almost jumped clear of the earth, and felt l 8 G0f1l OI uS4SA1 "ACAA D~-S
 changed for grape and canister. l saw the enemy forming for charge, but did not move. I heard them saying how much de-
 pended on me, and was too proud to give back foot.
 Just in front of me, as that regiment came charging on, were three blue-eyed beardless
 boys knew they must be brothers. l
 knew that good mother had kissed them
 goodbye at some farmhouse gate, and that grey haired father had felt his old heart ache as they marched away. was made to maim and kill had been called trusty l cannon. Aye! had taken delight in wars , horrid murders But as the three fair haired boys came sturdily on, and saw that all would be wiped out at once, faltered f and grew weak for the only time in my life. IT felt the tears of the mother. heard her , sobs of anguish above the roar of battle. ] 3 could not take them all. I held my grape 2 | against the pull of the lanyard. They pulled s again and again, but the powder refused tc
 burn. As the lines came near the brotheri
 bore away to the right, and when they wers
 out of range sent my terrible missilei
 crashing into other faces and tore score O
 men into bloody fragments. Thus, thougl
 look grim and murderous, have my weak
 ness Warriors would not look for sentiment 6 in black k-mouthed cannon, but if you comt ? closer you will see that the birds have nest l led in my throat and reared their younl ]. lamong the powder stains.