The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1881-03-18
CURIOUS THINGS IN WAR.

Men might write for a hundred years Of
the curious phases Of war and still leave the
subject fresh, War is a lottery, aud the
prizes are shot, shell, wounds and death
Tens of thousands Of men served four years
in the late war and returned home In a
thousand cases recruits were killed within
twenty-fOUr hours after reachiug the front
Wars missiles are no respecters Of persons.
and the soldier who fights an all days battle
without receiving 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 twenty-siX ConfederateS. The
next five shells from this same gun either
failed to explode or cleared the advancing
lines. In this same fight the horse of a Con
federate Colonel was cut square in two 10y
shot and the rider escaped unhurt. Ten
minutes after a Union officer behind the
earthworks stumbled and fell forward Oh
the ground and broke his neck
In one Of the assaults on Fort Wagner, in
Charleston harbor, the iron clad fleet, assist
ed by land batteries numbering twenty-seven
heavy cannon, bOmbarded the fort for two
hours before killing single soldier From
seventy to eighty heavy cannon were hurting
three tons of iron into the fort each minute.
and yet 10 one was hurt until over sos tons
of solid death had been wasted As an
Offset to this, witness the work Of a single
solid shot thrown from Federal Cunboat on
the lower Mississippi. \ Confederate flying
battery had already opened fire. The Fed
eral shot was directed at this piece The
big mass OF iron struck the six-pounder
square in the muzzle and upset gun and car
rage. \ piece of the muzzIe weighing
about twenty pounds, was broken OFF, and
this flew to the left and killed two men
Three men were wounded by smaller frag-
ments of flying splinters. The bigShOt next
struck and exploded a caisson, killing three
more men and wounding two others. From
the caisson it turned to the right, killed
horse, smashed a wheel for a field piece and
crushed the leg of a sergeant to a bloody
mass. Thus one shot so dis0rganized the
battery that it limbered up and dashed away
TO cover.
While heavy ordinance is necessary in re
ducing forts and earthw0rks it is doubtful
if there was any profit in the work of the big
guns carried 10y the iron-cIads ON the rivers.
When Mcclellan fell back he had the cover
of Cunboats, and some writers have claimed
that they saved his army from capture. So
far as the Confederate records show. the loss
by the hundreds of enormous shells thrown
over the heads of our troops into the woods
by these great cannon did not amount TO a
hundred men. They were a new thing then,
and the effect of the awful crash and tire
mendous explosion was demoralizing to the
troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White river threw
three shells into a Confederate camp, killed
nearly fifty men ana routed force Of s00.-
Within a week after that event the Confed-
crate General Shelby planted fouI pieces of
flying artillery ON the leyee within 400 feet
of the same gunboat at anchor. and without
the least cover for men OF guns, kept up the
. ght for over an hour, or until the gunboat
backed out Of it and steamed away.
The chances in a lottery can be figured
down fine, and certain per cent. of escapes
is allowed in a steamboat explosion, but Dc
/ who goes TO war has nothing TO console him
lie may dodge a 200 pound shell and be kill
ed by two bUcksnot. He may receive q
dozen bullets and live on, or the first one
may be fatal. He may ride i'm the widest
charge uuhurt, and he may be killed by a
stray bullet beside his campfire Detroit
Free Press.