The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-12-02
Queer Happenings in War.

Men might write for 100 years of the
curious phases of war, and still leave the
subject fresh Var is lottery, and the
prizes are shot, shell wounds and DEATH
Tens Of thousands of men served four
years i'll the late war and returned home.
In GOD cases recruits were killed within
twenty. four hours after reaching the
'front.' Wars missiles are no respecters
of pcrsDns and The soldier who fights an
all days battle without receiving a
wound may be killed in his tent at night
by the accidental discharge of musket
At the battle of Franklin the first
she'll sent from the first feId-piece to
open fire killed twenty six Confedersles.
The next five shells from the same gun
either failed to explode or cleared the
advancing lines. In this same fight, the
horse Of Confederate colonel was cut
square in two by shot, and the rider
escaped unhurt. Ten minutes after a
Union officer behind the breastworks
stumbled and fell forward On the ground,
breaking his neck.
In one of the assaults on Fort Wagner,
in Charleston harbor, the iron clad fleet,
assisted by land batteries numbering
twenty.seven heavy cannon, bombarded
the fort for two hours before killing
single soldier. From seventy to eighty
heavy cannon we're hurting three tons of
iron irto the fort each minute, and yet
no one was hurt until over 800 tons of
"solid death" had been wasted. As an
Offset t, this. witness the work Of single
solid shot thrown from Federal gunboat
on the lower Mississippi. a Confederate
flying battery was Just taking position,
aud one piece had already opened fire.
The Federal slot was aimed at this piece.
The big mass of iron struck the six
FOUNDER square on the muzzle and upset
gun and carriage. A piece Of the muz
zle weighing about twenty pounds, was
broken, and this flew to the left and killed
two men. Three men were hurt by small
er fragments of flying splinters. The
biz shot next struck and exploded a
caisso1l, killing three men and wounding
two Others. From the caisson it turned
to the right, killed q horse, smashed
wheel of field piece, and crushed the
leg of sergeant to bloody mass. That
one shot so discrganized the battery that
it limbered up and wheeled away to
cover.
While heavy ordnance is necessary in
reducing forts and earthworks, it is doubt.
ful if there was any profit in the work of
the big guns carried by the ironclads on
the rivers. When Mcclellan fell back
he had the cover of gun.boats, and some
writer's have claimed that their fire saved
his army from capture. So far as the
Confeleracy records show, the loss by
the hundreds of shells thrown over the
heads of our troops into the woods by
these great cannon amounted to no more
than 100 men. They we're new thing
then, and the awful crash and terrific
explosion on the men were demora!izing
on the troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White river
threw three shells into Confederate
camp, killed nearly fifty men, and routed
force of 500. Within week after that
event the Confederate Gen. Shelby
planted four pieces of flying artillery on
the levee, within 400 feet of the same
gunbcat at anchor, and without the least
cover for men or gurs kept up the fight
for orer an hour, or until the gunboat
backed out of it and steamed away.
The chances iu u lottery can be figured
down fine, and certain percentage OF
escapes is allowed in IA steamboat eyplo.
sion: hut he who goes to war has nothing
to console him. He may dodge 200
pound she'll and be killed by two buck
Shot. lie may receive a dozen bullets
and live on, or the first may be fatal.
He may ride in the widest charge unhurt,
and he may be killed by stray bullet
around his camp 6.e.-1rmy Bulletin.