Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1886-09-23
An Ex-Confederste Tells of Some Exp'

An Ex-Confederate Tells of Some Expe-
riences While in the Trenches.
"The narrowest escape ever had, said
a well-kuown lieutenant of police in Bal
timore, "was in front of Petersburg"
MY regiment was in Pickett's division
of Lnugstreet's corps. and another fellow
and were in trench together. We were
at the front of the line The other fellows
name was 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
barrel along that groove, get quick sight
on the enemy, pull the trigger, and then
Jump down. Dick was pig headed sort
Of chap told him a dozen times he
didn't have sense enough to hold his b. ad
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 l tell
you it was dangerous for even so much rs
a man ear TO get in sight of those fellows
Iheard 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 bree ch-loader. 1t is a
little bigger than the diameter of the gun
barrel, and consequntiy it goes out with
greater force than the ball from muZ-
zle-loader The way we could distinguish
between the two kinds Of guns was, that If
il was a breech-loader the bullet got TO
YOU before the report; but if it was a
muzzle-loader the report got TO you be-
fore the ball Most all Of the IankS used
the breech-loader, and you can just bet
your boots we were mighty careful how
we got in their way.
AS | was saying, the bullets were
whistling pretty lively over our trench. !
was loaded, and was about to put my gun
in the groove and pick off a blue-coat.
Dick was standing in front of the groove
putting in 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 oainute al
together-one of the forced balls came
singing through the groove and bored a
hole clear through his head as big as a
walnut. He fell dead l stepped across
to him, and in doing SO passed in front of
the 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 followed it, and buried themselves
in the identical hole made by the first
bullet The sharp-shoOter who did that
neat job was a half-mile away.
Pretty good shooting" suggested one
of the listeners.
Il should say So" said the lieutenant,
with an expressive shrug Of the shoulders.
some of those Yankee sharpshooters
were marvellous They had little tele-
scopes on their rifles that would fetch
man up close until he seemed to be about
only 100 yards away from the muzzle.
I've seen them pick Il man off 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 that anybody was
in sight of you, and all Of a sudden, with
everything as silent as the grave and not
sound OF Il gun, here would come skip
ping along one of those forced balls and
cut hole clear through you
How We used 10 lay for these sharp
shooters, though" he said, chuckling at
the remembrance. Wed keep lookout
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 thered be 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 it so hot for the sharpshooter
that he'd either tumble or crawl out
d cad or alive. The best shooters were in
the Union army Most of them came
from the west, and many Of them had
been scouts in the Indian country. They
rarely missed man at the distance OF
a mile Indeed, they could hit any objecI
as big as pie plate that far away.'-Chi
cago Ledger.