Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1881-03-26
oueer Th,ng. in vRar.

Men might write for hundred
years of the curious phases of wa
and still leave the subject fresh
War is lottery, and the prizes are
shot, shell, wounds and death
! Tens of thousands of men served
four years in the late war and re
| turned home. In a thousand case
recruits were killed within twenty.
-four hours after reaching the front.
Wars missiles are not respecters OF
persons, and the soldier who fights
an all days battle without receiv-
ing a wound may be killed in his
tent at night by the accidental dis
charge of a musket.
AT the battle of Franklin, the
first shell sent from the 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 Confederate colonel was cut
square in two by shot and the
rider escaped unhurt. Ten minutes
after a Union officer behind the
earth works stumbled and fell for
ward On the ground and broke his
neck.
In one of the assaults on Fort
Wagner, in Charlestown harbor, the
iron clad fleet, assisted by land bat
teries numbering twenty-seven
heavy cannon, bOmbarded the fort
for two hours before killing a single
soldier. From seventy to eighty
heavy cannon were hurling three
tons of iron into the fort each min
minute, and yet no one was hurt
until over 800 tons of Hsolid death"
had been wasted. AS a contrast to
this, witness the work of a single
solid shot thrown from a Federal
gunboat on the lower Mississippi.
A Confederate flying battery was
just taking position, and one piece
had already opened fire. The Fed
eral shot was directed at this piece.
The big mass Of iron struck the six
FOUNDER square on the nIuzZle and
upset gun and carriage. A piece of
the muzzle, weighing about twenty
pounds, was broken off, and this
flew to the left aud killed two men.
Three men were wounded by
fragments, or flying splint
ers. The big shot next struck and
exploded q caisson, killing three
more men and wounding two
others: From the caisS0n it turned
to the right, Killed horse, smashed
a wheel Tor field piece and crushed
the leg of a sergeant to a bloody
mass. That one shot so disorgan-
ized the battery that it limbered up
and dashed away to cover.
While heavy ordance is necessary
in reducing forts and earth works,
it is doubtful if there was any profit
in the work of the big guns carried
by the iron clads on the rivers.
When Mcclellan fell back he had
the cover of gunboats, and some
writers have claimed that their fire
saved his army from capture. So !
far as the Confederate record show, |
the loss by the hundreds of enor- |
nous 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 tremendous ex-
plosion was demoraliZing on the
troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White
river threw three shells into "A Con-
iederate camp, killed nearly fifty
men and routed a force of 800.
Within a week after that event the
General Shelby planted
our pieces of flying artillery on the
evee within 400 feet of the same
yunboat at anchor, and without the
east cover for men or guns, kept up
he fight for over an hour, or until
he gunboat backed out of it and
steamed away.
The chances in a lottery car be
1gured down fine, and a certain per
,ent. of escapes is allowed in a
explosion, but he who
goes to war has nothing to console
lin. He may dodge a 200-pound
hell and be killed by two buck
hot. He may receive a dozen bull
cts and live on, or the first one
nay prove fatal. He may ride in
he widest charge unhurt, and he
nay be killed by a stray bullet be-
ide his camp fire.