Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1885-11-12
SILENCE OF PEACE.
All! If they could only speak.

An. IL tney COulu only SPEAK.
There is marble slab at the head of eve,
war. If there is no name the word Gun
known" signifies that soldier who was
killed in a certain battle lies buried there.
1t is the guns which are silent-Wh hich
have nothing to speak for them. Here and
there one has been saved as relic, but the
vast majority have disappeared in the melt
ing furnaces, to come out in more peaceful
form.
What of the great barbette guns at Fort
Sumter, the black-mouthed monsters which
roared defiance at Beauregard as he struck
his first blow at the Federais? What of the
grim muZzles which belched flame from the
many port holes as brave Anderson fought
to delay the inevitable? Ahundred cannon
manned by Confederates, hurled death and
destruction at the fort for fatetul hours, and
nearly every one of them was called into
use in later years. Can one single piece Of
that ordnance be found to-day?
Great siege guns hurled shot and shell into
Yorktown, Charleston, Petersburg, Vicks-
a score of other places. Who can point out
the spot where one of those monsters lies
resting to-day?
In the rank weeds at Fort Pillow lies
disabled cannon. 1t may be spoken of as
dead. A great shell from a Federal gun
boat inflicted mortal injury. If that old
cannon could only speak, what story it
could relate of the fierce fights in the bend
of the great river 1t helped to drive the
gunboats back again and again it thunder
ed at them as they finally ran the gauntlet;
it fell into Federal hands; it was retaken by
the Confederates; it saw all the horribleness
of war before it was thrown down to sink
away in the soft soil and be half hidden in
the weeds.
On the ridge above Vicksburg-the ridge
from Which hundred guns hurled shot at
the Federal craft-One may find two Old
cannon, defaced, crippled, useless. They
will never thunder again. If they could
speak! Just think of the story they would
tell, beginning with Sherman's attack, and
ending on that historical Fourth of July
which witnessed Pemberton's surrender!
Between those dates were hundreds Of days
and nights days of battle-nightso of alarm
weeks of tarvation-months of suspense
and horror. These cannon could tell US all,
but they are forever silent.
And what of the hundreds of field bate
res? Each gun came to have its name and
history. Each one came to have its friends
and admirers in the brigade. Each new
scar added to it's list of friends-each battle
proved it more worthy of confidence. Think
Of the battles one Of those rusty, defaced
dlll uSCICoo plCSCo SOuiu Va
the thrilling incidents it could relate
In the roadside ditch between Fredericks-
burg and Charlottesville one lies dead, and
50 buried out of sight that few eyes rest
upon it. On the field Of Antietam-over in
the woods where Hooker rushed at Stone
wall Jackson and could not drive him-lies
another. No man can say that third can
be found, though he look over every field
of battle known to history. What of the
pieces which famed and roared at Bull
Run, Williamsburg, Fairfax and the Seven
Days? What of those which thundered up
and down the Shenandoah and the Drury?
What of the hundreds which belched shot
and shell at Fredericksburg, Chancellors-
vile, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, Appomat-
| toX? OF the hundreds not one single dozen
have been preserved through these twenty
years of peace. The burden of silence is
upon them. They may exhibit their scars
and rust, but the secrets of the battle lie
safely hidden in their black depths. They
could tell of fathers, brothers, and sons-of
heroes and coWards--of advance and re-
treat-of gallant charge and bloody repulse,
but they are silent forever.-DetroH Free
| Press