Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-10-15
WAR "REMINISCENCES.
Old Soldiers Rehearsing the Stirring
Scenes Through Which They
Passed.
Anecdotes of the Battle Field, the
Camp Fire, and the Merry
Spy-Glass Sharpshooting.

"The narroHest escape I ever had" said
a we'll known lieutenant of police in Bal
timore, "was in front of Petersburg"
| "My regiment was in Pickett's Division
of Longstreet's Corps, and another fellow
and were in a tlench together. We were
at the front of the line. The other fellow s
name was Dick. The trench was about
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 Hg-headed sort of a
chap. told him dozen times he didn't
have sense enough to hold his head on his
shoulders.
"There was lot of Yankee sharpshoot-
ers in front of us, and cautioned Dick to
look out how he exposed himself. I tell
you it was dangerous for even so much as
mans ear to get in sight of those fellows.
heard the bullets whistling lively over our
trench, and knew by the sound that ttey
is bullet from breech- loader. It is
little bigger than the diameter of The gun,
barrel, and consequently it goes out with
greater force than the ball from muzzle-
loader. The way we could distinguish be-
tween the two kinds of guns was, that if it
was breech- loader the bullet got to you
before the report; but if it was a muzzie-
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 whist
ling pretty lively over orr trench. was
loaded, and was about to put my gun in the
groove and pick off blue-coat. Dick was
standing in front of the groove putting i'll
a 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 cit was not more
than half a minute altogether-one of the
forced balls came singing through the
groove and bored 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 the groove. 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 tine trench.
Two other balls followed it, AMI buried
themselves in the identical hole made by
the first bullet. The sharpshoote1 who did
that neat Job was half-mile away"
pretty good shooting, suggested one of
the listeners.
suOulu Say SO, Sdlu Tue Lieutenant,
with an expressive shrug of the shoulders.
Some Of those Yankee sharpshooters were
marvellous. They had little telescopes on
their rifles that would fetch a man mp close
until he seemed to be about only one hun
dred yards away from the muzzle I've
seen them pick man off who was 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 q sudden, with every
thing as silent as the grave and not sound
of gun, here would come skipping along
one Of those forced balls and cit hole
clear through you.
Glow We used to lay for these sharp
shooters, though" he said, chuckling at
the remembrance. "We'd keep a 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 there'd be a tell
tale puff Of smoke come out of the tree.
Just as soon as we'd see one of those little
putfs 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 OF crawl out, dead or
alive. The best shooters wtxe 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 a man
at the distance of mile. Indeed, they
could hit any object as big as pie plate
that far away"