The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-07-24
A Good War Story.

batteries at, different places. When
Petersburg wasinyested he, sergeant,
and his brother, a lieutenant, were in
a mortar battery situatednear the old
Blanford cemetery, his brother being
incharge. Theirprincipal duty was to
fire at the federal batteries and draw
their fire. When the confederates
made q demonstration they had
bomb-proofs to run into, OF course;
but one can't stay in a bomb-proof
and fire the mortar ct the same time,
and, as might be supposed, they be-
came more familiar with pyrotechnic
displays than they cared for. There
was one Union battery in particular.
that always gave them trouble when
ever they fired ut it. 1t was known as
the s'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 it rarely required
more than ten minutes to run the
~confederates into their bomb-proof.
1t was in this Blandford battery that
one OF the most curious and at the
time mysterious events of the war oc.
cured.
"One night" says Sergt. Egglestor
I'VE were working there in the battery
firing away in different directions, but
taking care to keep our hands off The
railroad iron battery, and watching
the shells as they flew around, occa-
sionally jumping into the bomb proof
when one would light in ourplace, when
two tine-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 waistcoats and coats, but they
looked as though they We're rank Off
GERS. They walked up to George, nd
dressed him as lieutenant, as though.
they knew him, and s aid thatthey had
come out to see some mortar firing,
and hopedthathe would accommodates
them if it was not inconvenient.
George replied that he wouldbe happy
to show them anythingin thatline, and
turning to me, said, Touch up tha
railroad-iron battery, joe Well, /
wished that those chaps had stayedin
their tents; but Ithougl.that it would
not be very long before they would be
glad to get into the bomb-proof, and
that the rest of rs couldgo in then also.
So ] commenced to touch up that rail
road-iron place. In less than three
minutes we had walked up thahornet's
nest, and they were raining shells into
us at a terrific rate.
!'Those fellows over there seemed to
know that the occasion was an unusual
one, and they were determined to give
us aiithat we could askfor. The shells
were dropped into our battery like
hailstones, bursting all around US, and
rolling around like footballs; but
there stood those two officers and
George, leaning up against q piece Of
timber and talking asscoolly as if they
were leaning on q fence q thousand
miles away from a piece of artillery.
A shell came along and cut that piece
of timber in two, and scattered splin-
tiers the place; but all that they
did was to lean against fresh place and
go on talking. I 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 gnnners to shift his gun
around and play on sonlethingels and
pretty soon / shifted another, and the
fire gradually died down. Iknew 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 liketogoon
to the skirmish line and see what was
going on there, II he would show them
the way. He told them to go out Of
the battery onacertain side andfollow
the path; they could not miss theskir-
mish. 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 clothes to wear, and il
George had only thought q minute he
might have known that none of them
would be roaming around at night to
see mortar-fring; 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 mysterious.
About two years ago, or longer,
George vas on q Ohio river steam
boat talking to q man in the saloon,
when q gentleman came up and said:
Are you not the lieutenant who wae
in command OF a mortar battery near
Blandford cemetery at Petersburg?'
Yes he answered. And don't you
remember two officers coming to your
battery one highland saying that they
had come out to see some mortar-fr-
ing9' Yes, and / have been looking
for them ever since.
"tNNell, i am one of them, and my
companion was Cen, also of the
Union army i am very gladto meet
YOU said Lieut.. Eggleston, but il /
had known who You were at that time
you would not be talking to me now
SO 1 knew then was the reply wv
did start out to e mortar firing, Just
as Itold you; and we also intended to
go on to the skirmish line. But wegot
into the wrong battery. You remeIn-
Der that our skirmish line ran upgtO
what was a marsh when we first gotto
Petersburg, and that it really pointed
behind your line. Well, we got to the
end of our line ut the marsh, but it had
dried up, and after we had wandered
around there for a while, confused by
the shells flying in different directions,
we suddenly found ourselves right at
your battery. We sat there IN the
ditch for almost two hours, wondering
what we could do; " g could hear
every word that your men said.
Had we been in uniform We should
have gone right in and surrendered;
but we knew that our white clothes
would be taken AZ DISCUSSES, and that
we would have been arrested as spies.
Undoubtedly, said Lieut.. Z. $50 we
concluded to 90 IN and pretend that
I'VE we're all right. hnk Withnnf 0ssr.