Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1881-04-14
QUEER THINGS IN WAR.

Men might write for a hundred years of the
curious phases Of war and still leave the SUBJ
ject 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 returned home. In thousand
cases recruits were killed within twenty-four
hours after reaching the front. Wars mis-.
siles 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 she'll
sent from the first Union feld-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 by a
shot and the rider escaped unhurt. Ten min.
utes after Union officer behind the earth.
works stumbled and fell forward on the
ground and broke his neck.
In one of the assaults on Fort Wagner,
in Charleston harbor, the iron clad fleet, as
sisted 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
hurling three tons Of iron into the fort each
minute, and yet no one was hurt until over
800 tons of solid death" had been wasted.
AS an Offset to this, witness the work Of a
single solid shot thrown from Federal gun
boat on the lower Mississippi. A Confeder-
ate flying battery was just taking position,
and one piece had already opened fire. The
Federal shot was directed at this piece. The
big mass of iron struck the six FOUNDER
square on the muzzleand upset the gun and car
riage. A piece of the muzzle weighing about
twenty pounds was broken off, and this flew
to the left and killed two men. Three men
were wounded by smaller fragments or flying
splinters. The big shot next struck and ex.
ploded caisson, killing three more men and
wounding two Others From the caisson it
turned to the right, killed horse, smashed a
wheel of 6eld.piece and crushed the leg
of sergeant to a bloody mass. That one
shot so disorganized the battery that it linn
bered up and dashed aaway to cover.
While heavy ordnance is necessary IN re.
ducing forts and earthworks, it is doubtful if
there is any profit in the work of the big guns
carried by the iron clads on the river. When
Mcclellan fell back he had the cover of gun.
boats, and some writer's have claimed that
their fire 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
hundred men. They were new thing then,
and the effect of the awful crash and tre-
mendous explosion was demoralizing to the
troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White river
threw three shells into Confederate camp,
killed nearly fifty men and routed force
of 800. Within week after that event, the
Confederate General, Shelby, planted four
'pieces of flying artillery on the levee within
400 feet of the same gunboat at anchor, and
without the least cover for men or guns, kept
up the firing for over an hour, or until the
gunboat backed out of it an1 steamed away
The chances in lottery can be figured down
fine, and certain per cent. of escapes is al
lowed in a steamboat explosion, but he who
goes to war has nothing to console him. He
may dodge 2OO.pound shell and be killed
by two buckshot. He may receive dozen
bullets and live on, or the first one may be
fatal. He may ride in the widest charge
unhurt, and he may be killed by stray
bullet beside his camp fre.-Detroit Fret
| Press.