, 1885-05-19
A COOL TRIO.
UNDER FIRE FROM A FEDERAL RAIL-
ROAD -RoNF BATTERY.
An EI-confederate Tells n story of His
Experience In tho ARTILLERY Service
a Couple of visitors In -
white Clothes.

Last February. while in Virginia, l met
will q gentleman who was in the artillery
service during almost Ihe whole of the
war. being nj first in field service and then
shut up in mortar batteries at different
places When Petersburg was invested
he. a sergeant. and his brother. Il %liouten-
ant, were in a mortar battery situated
near old Blandford cemetery. his brother
being In charge. Their principal duty
was 10 lire at the Federal batteries and
draw their fire. When the Confcderates
made a demonstration they had bomb
proofs to run into of course; hut one can
not stay in a bomb-proof and fire n NOR
tar at the same time. and. rs might be
supposed, they became more familiar with
pyrotechnic displays than they cared
Tor. There was one Union battery
In particular that always gave them
trouble whenever they fired at IL Ii was
known as the railroad. iron ' battery, and
was very heavily armed. Moreover. the
gunners therein had the exact range Of
the Blandford battery, which was twice
too large, and Il rarely required more than
ten minutes to u the C~onfederates into
their bomb proof
-one night, " says Sergt Egglesion.
we were working there in the battery
firing away in different directions. but
taking care to keep Il hands off the
Nt f a11 'N'A ~
shells as they few around, occasionally
jumping into the bombproof when
one would light in our place, when
two ~ine-looking men, whom we
all look for general officers. sud
denly walked into the works We could
not tell their exact rank, because they
wore white waistcoats and coats, but they
looked as though they were rank officers.
They walked up to George. addressed him
"a lfunfanunf ua HIAnUh thau tnnx- htr,
and said that they had come out TO sec
some mortar-iring. and hoped that he
would accommodate them. If 1t was not
i%nconvenient. George replied that he
would be happy to show them any thing
In that line. and turning TO me, said.
Touch up the railroad iron battery. Joe
Well. i wished hat these chaps had
stayed in their tents; but thought that il
would not be very long tefore they would
be glad to get into the bomb proof, and
that the rest of us could go in then also.
So l commenced TO touch up that rail
road iron place. -
Those fellows oyer there seemed to
know hat 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 bailstones,
bursting all around us. and rolling around
like footballs; but there stood those TWO
officers and George, leaning up against a
piece Of timber and talking as coolly as If
they were leaning on a fence 1000 miles
away from n piece Of artillery. A shell
came along and cut that piece OF timber in
two, and scattered splinters all over the
place; but all that they did was to lean
against a fresh place to go on talking. 1
came to the conclusion that they
liked that thing better than l did,
and l told one Of the gunners to
shift his gun around and play on some.
thing else. and pretty soon l shifted an
other. 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 minutes
after the fire died down, and then said
that they would like TO go on to The
Ekirmish line and sec what was going on
there, II he would show them the way.
He told them to 20 out Of the battery ON n
certain side and follow the path; they
could not miss the skirmish line They
left after expressing 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 it comes In.
The next day George tried TO find out
who they were. but none Of our officers
had been out there. The fact is, / don't
believe that any Of our officers had any
white cloth S to wear, and II George had
only though n minute he might have
known that none Of them would be roam
ing around at night TO see mortar firing;
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. as the thing began to get mysteri.
Gus.
About two years ago, or longer,
George was on an Ohio river steamboat
talking TO a man in the saloon, when a
gentleman came up and said; Are you
not the lieutenant who was In command
Of Il mortar battery near Blandford
cemetery at Petersburgf' Yes he
answered And don't you remem-
Der two officers coming TO your
battery one night and saying that
they had come out to see some mortar
fringY Yes; n l have been looking
for them ever since.
Well. l am one of them; l am Gen.
-. of the Union army at that time, and
my companion was Gen. -. also OF the
you, said Lieut. Eggleston, but II / had
known who you were at that time you
would not be talking 10 me now so I
knew. then. was the reply. We did
start out TO sec mortar firing. just as L
told you and we also intended to 20 on
TO the skirmish line. But we got into the
wrong battery. You remember that our
skirmish line ran up 10 what was a marsh
when We first got to Petersburg. and that
1t really pointed behind your line. Well,
we got 10 the end OF our line at the marsh,
but il had dried up. and after we had
wandered around there for a while. con.
fused by the shells flying in different di-
rections. we suddenly found our
selves right at your battery.
We sat there In the ditch for
almost two hours, wondering what
we could do: we could hear every word
that your men said Had we been in uni
form we should have gone right In and
surrendered; but we knew thai our white
clothes would be taken as DISCUSSES, and
thai we would ave been arrested as spies.
Undoubtedly said Lieut. T. so we
concluded TO go in and pretend that we
were all right. but without telling our
names. After WI got out Of your bat
enough While VIC were standing there
talking TO you we were getting u
hearings so as 10 get back.
have thought Of that night a thousand
times, and wondered If / would ever
meet That Lieutenant who made III stand
under the fire OF our own batteries for
half an hour without saying n word about
bomb proofs. And as o o as / heard
your voice 1 thought that l recognized the
one that said Touch up the railroadiron
battery. Joe W.