News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-11-04
CURIOSITIES OF THE WAR.
Strange Things That IIiken the Grent
struggle to Lottery.

Men might write for hundred year
on the curious phases of war and still
leave the subject fresh. War is lot
terry and the prizes are shot, shells
wounds, and death. Tens of thousand
of men served four years in the late wa
and returned home, In a thousand case
recruits were killed within twenty-fou
hours after reaching the front. War
missiles are no respecters Of person, anC
the soldier who fights an all days battl,
without receiving a wound may be kill
ed in his tent at night by the Academia
discharge of a musket
At the battle of Franklin the first shell
sent from the first Union field piece t.
open fire killed twenty-s six COnfederates
The next five shells from the same gur
either failed to explode or cleared tn,
! advancing lines. In this same fight the
| horse OF Confederate colonel was cu
square in two by shot, and the ridel
escaped unhurt Ten minutes after, {
Union officer behind the breastwork'
stumbled and fell forward on the ground
breaking his neck.
In one of the assaults on Fort Wagner
in Charleston harbor, the ironclad fleet,
| assisted by land batteries numbering
twenty seven cannon, bombarded the
! fort for two hours without killing &
single soldier. From seventy to eighty
heavy cannon were hurting three tons ot
iron into the fort each minute, and vet
no one was hurt until over 800 tons OF
''solid death" had been wasted. AS an
offset to this, witness the work of a
single solid shot thrown from a Federal
gunboat on the Lower Mississippi. A
Confederate flying battery was Just
taking position, and one piece had al
ready opened fire. The Federal shot
was aimed at this piece. The big mass
of iron struck the iX-pounder square on
the muZzle and upset gun and carriage.
A piece of the muzzle weighing about
twenty pounds, was broken, and this
flew to the left and killed two men.
Three men were hurt by small fragments
of flying splinters. The big shot next
struck and exploded a caisson, killing
three more men and wounding two
others. From the caIsson 1t turned to
the right, killed a horse, smashed a
wheel of field piece, and crushed the
leg of sergeant to bloody mass. That
one shot so disorganized the battery that
it imbered up and wheeled away to
cover.
While heavy ordnance is necessary in
reducing forts and earthworks, it is
doubtful if there was any profit in the
work of the big guns carried by the
lronclads on the rivers When McClel-
Ian fell back he had the cover of gun
boats, and some writers have claimed
that their fire saved his army from cap.
ture. So far as the Confederacy records
show, the loss by the hundreds of enor-
nous shells thrown over the heads OF
our troops into the woods by these great
cannon amounted to no more than one
hundred men. They were a new thing
then, and the effect of the awful crash
and terrific explosion on the men wa,
demoralizing on the troops in line.
A Union gunboat on the White River
threw three shells into a Confederate
camp, killed nearly fifty men, and routed
a force of 800. Within week after
that event the Confederate General
Shelly planted four pieces of flying ar.
tliery on the levee, within 400 feet Of
the same gunboat at anchor, and with
out the least cover for men and guns
kept up the fight for over an hour, OF
until the gunboat backed out of it and
steamed away.
The chances in a lottery can be figure
down fine, and certain percentage OF
escapes is allowed in a steamboat ex.
plosion; but he who goes to war has
nothing to console him. He may dodge
a two-hundred pound shell and be killed
by two buckshot. He may receive q
dozen bullets and 1--we on, or the first
may be fatal. He may ride in the wild.
est charge unhurt, and he may be killed
by stray bullet around his camp fire
Chicago Ledger.