The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1886-03-18
KILLED BY A FORCED BALL.a
An incident of Army Iife-wonderfal
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An incident of Army Life-Wonderfa1
Skill of Yankee Sharpshooters.
%The narrowest escape ever had, y said
well-known lieutenant Of police the
other night, @was in front Of PeteFsbuEg.p
aMy regiment was in Pickett's division
Of Long5treet's corps" be continu ued, "and
another fellow and were in a trench to-
gether. We were at the front of the line.
The other fellow went by his first name,
Dick! The trench was about six feet deep
and there was a groove cut in the top of
the front, through which we did our
shooting at the Yankees. When we
wanted to pop away we'd lay the gun-bar-
rel along that groove, get quick sight on
the enemy, pull the trigger and then
Jump down. Dick was a. pig=headed sort
of chap. had told him 3 dozen times
he didn't have sense enough to hold his
head on his shoulders.
There was a lot of Yankee sharpshoot-
ers in front of us, and cautioned Dick to
look out how he exposed himself 1 tell
you it was dangerous for even so much as
a mans ear to get in sight of those fel-
lows. heard the bullets whistling lively
over our trench, and I knew by the sound
that they were forced balls A forced
ball, you know, is a bullet from a
breech-loader. 1t is little bigger than
Dn0 QldU1Cb6E VI B1kc anu COAcC-
quently 1t goes out with greater force
than the ball from muzzle-loader, The
way we could distinguish between the
two kinds of guns was that, If it was
eehzloader, the bullet got to you be-
fore the report, but if it was a muzzle-
loader the report got to you before the
ball Most all of the Yanks used the
breech- leaders, and You can just bet your
boots we were mighty careful how we got
in their wayn Ea' Y be -
GAS was saying, the bullets were
whistling pretty lively over our trench i
was loaded and was about to put my gun
in the groove and try to pick OF a blue
coat Dick was standing in front of the
groove putting in q charge. He had his
eye at the breech Of his gun examining it,
and the side of his head was turned
toward the groove. While he was standing
there-it was not more than half a minute
altogether-one of the forced balls came
singing through the groove and bored q
hole clear through his head as big as
walnut He fell dead I stepped across
to him, and in doing so passed in front of
groove Just as got on the other side of
the trench another bullet passed through
the groove and buried itself in the rear
wall of the trench Two other balls fol
lowed it and buried themselves in the
identical hole made by the first bullet.
The shaFpshooter who did that neat job
was q half mile away"
@Pretty good shooting, " suggested one
of the listeners ia $3.50 - ~
II should say So" said the lieutenant
with an expressive shrug of the should
era, sSome Of those Yankee sharpshoot-
ers were marvellous. They had little teIe-
scopes on their rides that would fetch q
man up close until he seemed to be only
about 100 yards away from the muzzle.
I've seen them pick a man OF who was .
mile away. They could hit so far you
couldn't hear the report Of the gun You
wouldn't have any idea anybody was in
sight of you, and all OF sudden, with
everything as silent as the grave and not
a sound of gun, here would come skip
ping along one of those forced balls and
cut hole clear through you"
slow we used to lay for these sharp
..1ooters, though" he said, chuckling at
the remembrance. @We'd keep a lookout
for every little pun of snaoke The sharp
shooters, you know, mostly climbed trees
and hid themselves in the branches. So