The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-11-13
A CONFEDERATE BATTERY.
The Bow Capnoneers of Richmond.

Association, OF Richmond, Va, have
made q good selection of a historian.
The battery was largely composed OF
BOYS, who required written permission
from their parents to enlist. 1t was
organized in the spring of 1862, and
after service, East and West, saw the
last of the wal at AppOmattOX. Its
story is given to the world in q book
in which the lights and shades of war
are genuinely mingled. The realities
of fighting and marching with a bat
terry are doubtless as graphically pic
tured here as IN any volume to be
found. The author was not q SeCes-
s%iOnist, and his mother wept when
she saw the flag of the United States
hauled down in Richmond. He en-
listed, however, because he was a Nir-
ginian, a distinction that in turn
would have given trouble to the
Southern Confederacy if it had sue
ceeded in its war for separation. The
boy battery had its baptism by fire
at the second battle of Manassas,
] where it was postedi in lime of eighteen
guns between Jackson and Longstreet.
The guns broke one of the most
dangerous of the Union infantry
! charges, that OF Porter with about
five thousand men. The fight at this
point lasted half an hour. Lee had
placed the guns so thickly there that
the CannOneers almost elbOwed each
other. Every mar was at his post.
No talking; nc duCking of heads. All
was intense earnestness. The face
was flushed; the eyes full; and the arm
stronger than is wont. TWAS astrug-
gle for life. 1t seemed that the very
heavens were ablaze; or that tw)
clouds, surcharged with electricity
and waited by opposing winds, had
met in terrific struggle"
The battery had severalm men wound
ed in that battle. At Antietam it
passed through a fearful ordeal, losing
twenty-One men in killed and wound
ed. When the Confederate army fell
back across the Potomac at Sheperds-
town the author noticed General Lee
standing at the ford giving directions
even to teamsters. Soon after that
campaign the livingin the Confederate
army became less elaborate. Only
commissioned officers had servants.
The cOmmissary issued little except
fresh beef.
The battery had but oneman wound
ed at the battle of Fredericksburg.
During the following winter, the Con-
federates had many amusements in
their winter-camp. The private
soldiers fought SNOWFALL battles; but
one of their most relished diversions,
was to yell az citizens in tall hats:
"Come down out of that tall hat, and
join the soldier-boys, and help whip
the Yanks," vas the cry. A hundred
voices would take up the shout with
come down! come down. / know you
are up there, / see your legs"
The author was captured, with
about a third OF his company, by
Sedgwick's charge at Charlottesville.
The prisoners were treated well, and
in three weeks, having been exchanged,
were back at the front.
At Gettysburg, Parker's battery was
amongthe seventy-fiv guns with which
Lee rained iron upon the Union posi-
ton as a prelude to Pickett's great
charge upon the heights. Lees artil-
lery suffered heavily, during this bonn
bardment, and expended nearly all
their ammunition. Parker's battery
alone fired 1,142 rounds. It's loss
was three killed, and ten wounded.
The retreat from Gettysburg was be-
gun in torrents of rain, but I.ee's army
was held well In hand, and pursuit of
it, even by fresh troops, could not
have been pushed rapidly.
Whap TacauCA1aaf NEE n~doroI ~
Georgia, Parker's Battery went with
the two divisions, but did not arrive
in time to take part in the battle of
Chickamauga. The battery was post
ed on Lookout Mountain for a time.
AUnion picket in front of them was
heard one night to remark that
things went wrong at Chickamauga,
but "as soon as Longstreet goes away
we'll give you the d-dest whipping
you ever had in your life." The bat
terry moved with Longstreet to East
Tennessee, where the living was hard
and the fighting without tangible re-
suits. More than that, the Confeder-
ates were for the first time hostile.
The men ofthe region were either hid
den in the mountains or were in the
Union army. The women were spirit
ed, not to say saucy. During an en-
gagement near Beams Station D. wom-
an came out Of q house and ordered
the Parker gunners to ''move them
things out OF my yard" At this mo
ment a gunner's leg was struck by q
piece OF shell, and His pocket book
thrown out upoL the ground. He
said: "Wel, I always Thought the
Yankees were mighty smart fellows,
but / didn't think they could pick q
fellows pocket a mile off, 1t was
not considered safe for O. Con-
federate to sleep in an East
Tennessee cabin about that time.