, 1886-02-27
KILLED BY A FORCED BALL"


~ " haaI $3.50
XIII of Yankee sharpshootsrs.
~The narrowest escape l ever had" said
a well-known lieutenant OF police the
other night, was in front OF Petersburg"
MY regiment was In Pickett's division
OF Longstreet's corps" he continued, "and
another fellow and i 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 grooye 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 a chap. l had told him a dozen times
he didn't have sense enough TO hold his
head on his shoulders.
@There was n lot of Yankee sharpshoot-
ers In front OF us, and | cautioned Dick to
look out how he exposed himself, / tell
you It was dangerous for even so much MS
a mans ear To get in sight OF those fell
lows. | heard the bullets whistling lively
over our trench, and / knew by the sound
that they were forced balls A forced
ball, you know, is "A bullet from a
breech-loader. IL is a little bigger han
the diameter OF the gun-barrel, and conse-
quently II goes out with greater force
than the ball from n muzzle-loader. The
way we could distinguish between the
two kinds OF guns was that, II 1t was a
breech-loader, the bullet got TO you be-
fore the report, but II 1t 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 way
AS l was saying, the bullets were
whistling pretty lively over u trench. 1
was loaded and was about TO put my gun
In the groove and try to pick off a blue
coat. Dick was standing in front Of the
DOW putting in n charge. He had his
eye at the breech of his gun examining 1t,
and the side OF his mead was turned
toward the groove. While he was standing
there-it was not more than half n minute
nltogether-one Of the forced balls came
singing through the groove and bored a
hole clear through his mead as big as a
walnut. He fell dead. | stepped across
TO him, and in doing 80 passed In front OF
roove Just as l 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 II and buried themselves in the
Identical hole made by the first bullet.
The sharpshooter who did that neat job
vas n half mile away"
pretty good shooting, - suggested one
Of the listeners.
Il should say So" said the lieutenant,
with an expressive shrug Of the should
ers. "Some of those Yankee sharpshoot-
crs were marvellous. They had little tele-
scopes on their rifles that would fetch a
man up close until he Feemed to be only
about 100 yards away from the muzzle.
Pve seen them pick a man of who was a
mile away. They could hit so far you
couldn't hear the report OF the gun. You
wouldn't have any idea anybody WINS in
sight OF you, and all OF a sudden, with
everything as silent rs the grave and not
n N Of n gun, here would come skip
ping along one OF those forced balls and
cut n hole clenr through you"
Allow we used to lay for these sharp
shooters, though" he said, chuckling at
the remembrance. WED keep alook-out
for every little puff of smoke. The sharp
shooters, you know, mostly climbed trees
and hid themselves in the branches. So,
every time they'd shoot there'd be n tell
tale puff OF smoke come out OF the tree.
Just as soon as we'd see one OF those little
puffs OF smoke the entire battery would
rain shot and shell into that tree, and
we'd make il so hot for the sharpshooter
TINT he'd either tumble or crawl out, dead
or alive. The best shooters were in the
Union army. Mos OF them came from
the west, and many Of them had been
scouts in the Indian country. They rarely
missed n man at n distance OF n mile. In
deed, they could hit any object as big AZ a
pie-plate that far away Baltimore
Herald