St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-06-04
The Adventure of Two officers.

n good story of the war Is told 10y
correspondent of the Chicago Times
as follows:
Last February, while in Virginia,
met with a gentleman who was in the
artillery service during almost tho
whole of the war, being ut first in field
service aud then shut up in mortar bat
teries at different places. When Pc
tersburg was invested he, sergeant,
and his brother, "A lieutenant, were IN
mortar battery situated near the old
BlaBdfOrd cemetery, his brother being
in charge Their principal duty was
to fire at the federal batteries and draw
their fire.
When the cOnfederates made dem
onstration they had bomb-proOfs TO run
into. of course but one can't stay in a
bOmb-proOf and fire the mortar at the
same time. and as might be supposed,
they became more familiar with pyTO-
technic displays than they cared for.
There was one Union battery in par
ticular that always gave them trouble
whenever they fired at it. 1t was
known rs the railroad IRON battery
and was very heavily armed. More
over. the guuneTs therein had the eX-
act range of the Blandford battery,
which WAS twice too large, and 1t rare
/ " required more than ten minutes to
run the confederates into their bomb
proof 1t was in this Blandford bat
terry that one of the most curious and
at the time mysterious events of the
war occurred.
cone night" says Sergeant Eggles-
ton, "we were working there in the
battery firing away in different direc-
tions but taking care to keep our hands
off the railroad IRON battery, and watch
ing the shells ~ they flew around. Oc-
casioually jumping into the bOmb-prOof
when one would light in our place,
when two fine looking men, whom we
all took for general officers, suddenly
walked into the works. We could not
tell their exact rank, because they wore
white wai~tcoats and coats, but they
looked as though they were rank Off
GERS. They walked mp to George, adj
dressed him as lieutenant, as though
they knew him, and said that they had
come out to see some mortar firing,
and hoped that he would accommodate
them If IL was not announcement. George
replied that he would be happy to
show them anything in that line, and
Turning to me said, Touch mp the rail
road iron battery, joe
.'Wel, | wished that those chaps
that it would not be very long before
they would be glad to get into the
bomb proof, and that the rest of us
could 90 in then also. SO | commenc
ed To touch up that Tailroad-iron place.
In less than three minutes we had
walked mp that hornets nest, and they
were raining shells into It's at "a terrible
rate.
Those fellows over there seemed to-
know that the occasion was an unusual
one, and they were determined to give
us all that we could ask for. The shells
were dropped into our battery like
halstoncs bursting all around us, and
rolling around like footballs but there
stood those two officers and George,
leaning mp against II piece of timber
and talking rs coolly rs if they were
leaning on fence II thousand miles
away f'om piece of artillery. a shell
came along and cut that piece of tim
Der in two and scattered SplinterS all
over the place hut all that they did
was To lean against fresh place and
go an talking. | don't believe that
either one Of the three even winked. |
came to the conclusion that they liked
that thing better than did, and told
one of the gunucrs to shift his gun
around and play on something else,
aud pretty soon | shifted another, and
the fire gradually died down. knew
that George would stand there and be
shot at till the crack of doom before he
would suggest anything about bomb
proofs, and the other chaps didn't want
to say anything unless he did. Well,
they talked ON for ten or fifteen min
utes after the fire had died down, aud
then said that they would like to go on
to- the skirmish line, and see what was
going ON there, it he would show them
the way. He told them to go ont of
the battery on "a certain side and fol-
low the path they could not miss the
skirmish line. They left after express
ing their thanks for our kindness, but
they did not say what their names
were, and George was too polite to ask
them.
''NOw the funny part of II comes III.
The next day George tried to find ont
who they we're. but none of our officers
had been out there. The fact is,
don't believe that any of our officers
had any white clothes to wear, and if
q George had only thought minute he
might have known that none of them
would hc roaming around ut night to
see mortar lining; they could stay in
camp and get enough of that. But he
could not find out who those men were,
though every effort was made, rs the
thing began tO get mysterious.
''AbOut two years ago, or longer,
George was on an Ohio river steamboat
talking To man in the saloon, when a
gentleman came up and said "Are
YOU not the lieutenant who was in
command of mortar battery near
Blaudford Cemetery at Petersburg 2
Yes he answered. Aud don't YOU
remember two officers coming to your
battery one night and saying that they
4 had come out to see some mortar fir
Il iug ? Yes, and | have been looking
Tor them ever since
"'Wcll, | am one of them, and my
Fl companion was General , also of
the Union army Il am very glad to
meet you,' said Lieutenant EgglestOn,
but if had known who You were mt
that time YOU would not be- talking To
me now so | knew them was the
reply. we did start out To see NOR
tar firing, just a. ! told YOU and we
also intended To go on To the skirmish
line But We got into the wrong bat
terry. Iou remember that our Skin
mish line ram mp To what was marsh
when We first got To Petersburg, and
that il really pointed behind your line.
Wei. we got to the end of our line at
Fl the marsh. hut il had dried up, and
after we had wandered around there
II for IA while confused by the shells fly
81 ing in different directions. we sudden
- " found ourselves right at your bat