Evening capital. (Annapolis, Md.) 1884-1910, 1886-10-26
ANNAPOLIS, MD, TUESDAY EVENING. OCTOBER 26, 1885,
QUEER HAPPENINGS IN wAR.
A Lottery In which the Prizes are shot.
shell. xHnnn.an nna hana4a.-

Shell, Wounds aud Death.
Men might write for 100 years Of the
curious phases of war, and still leave
the subject fresh. War is lottery, and
the prizes are shot, shell, wounds and
death. Tens of thousands Of men served
four years in the late war and returned
home. In 1000 cases recruits were
killed within twenty-four hours after
reaching the front. Wars missiles are
no respecters of persons, and the soldier
who fights an ell days battle without
receiving wound may be killed in his
tent at night by the accidental discharge
of musket.
At the battle of Franklin the first
shell sent from the first field-piece to
open fire killed twenty six Confederates.
The next five shells from the same gun
either failed to explode or cleared the
advancing lines. In this same fight, the
horse Of a Confederate colonel was cut
square in two by shot, and the rider
escaped unhurt. Ten minutes after a
Union officer behind the breastworlrs
stumbled and fell forward ON the
ground, breaking his neck.
In one of The assaults on Fort Wagner,
in Charleston harbor. the iron-clad feet,
assisted by land batteries numbering
twenty-seven heavy cannon, bombarded
the fort for two hours before killing a
single soldier. From seventy to eighty
heavy cannon were hurting three tons of
iron into the fort each minute, and yet
no one was hurt until over 300 tons of
rny3
offset to this, witness the work of a single
solid shot thrown from Federal gum
boat on the lower Mississippi. A Con-
federate flying battery was just taking
position. and one piece had already
opened fire. The Federal shot was aimed
at this piece. The big mass of iron
struck the six-pounder square on the
muzzle and upset gun and carriage. A
piece Of the muzzle, weighing about
twenty pounds, was broken, and this
few to the left and killed two men.
Three men were hurt by smaller frag-
ments or flying spiinters. The big shot
next struck and exploded caisson, kill
ing three men and wounding two others.
From the caisson it turned to the right
killed a horse, smashed a wheel of
field-piece, and crushed the leg of a
sergeant to bloody mass. That one
shot SO disorganized the battery that it
limbered up and wheeled away to cover
While heavy ordnance is necessary in
reducing forts and earthworks, it is
doubtful il there was any profit in the
work of the big guns carried by the iron
clads on the rivers. When Mcclellan
fell back he had the cover of gun boats,
and some writers have claimed that their
fire saved his army from capture. So
far as the Confederacy records show,
the loss by the hundreds of enormous
shells thrown over the heads of our
troops into the woods by these great can
non amounted to no more than 100 men.
They were new thing then, and the
effect of the awful crash and terrific ex-
plosion on the men was 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 q week after
that event the Confederate Gen. Shelby
planted four pieces of flying artillery ON
the levee, within 400 feet of the same
gnnboat at anchor, and without the
least cover for men or guns kept up the
fight for over an hour, or until the gun
boat backed out of it and steamed
away.
The chances in lottery can be figured
down fine, and a certain percentage of
escapes is allowed in steamboat explo-
sion; but he who goes to war has moth
ing to console him. He may dodge a
20O-pound shell and be killed by two
buckshot. He may. receive dozen buI
let's and live on. or the first may be IA
tai. He may ride in the widest charge
unhurt, and he may be killed by a stray
bullet around his camp fire. Army Bull