The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1888-11-13
fast melting away. Let the brethren
speak. Turn on the lights, and that
through the Alliance organ.
Yours fraternally,
FRANCIS JoYNER,
Deputy Organizer.
A BATTERY IN HOT ACTION.

lister Whizzing Through the Air. "a
One who has fought on many a bat
tlefeld writes the following descrip-
ton of the work of a battery Of six
guns: ae ~5sf.a} III
Did you ever see a battery take po-
sition? Ja0: So "lt III p. @s
It hasn't the thrill of a cavalry
charge, nor the grimness of a line of
bayonets moving slowly and determ-
inedly on, but there is a peculiar ex-
element about it which makes old
veterans rise in their saddles and cheer.
We have been fighting at the edge
of the woods, Every cartridge-box
has been emptied once or more, and
one-fourth of the brigade has melted
away in dead and wounded and miss
ing. Not a cheer is heard in the whole
brigade. We know that we are being
driven foot by foot, and that when we
break once more the line will 90 to
pieces and the enemy will pour through
the crap. ..=.' "@'- 7'@
Here comes helpl'
Down the crowded highway gallaps
a battery, withdrawn from some other
position to save ours. The field fence
is scattered while you could count
thirty, and the guns rush for the hills
behind us. Six horses to a piece
three riders to each gun. Over dry
bitches, where a farmer would not
drive a wagon, through clumps of
bushes, over logs a foot thick, every
horse on the gallop, every rider lash
ing his team and yelling-the sight
behind us making us forget the foe in
front. The guns jump two feet high
as the heavy wheels strike a rock or
log, but not a horse slackens his pace,
not a cannoneer loses his seat. Six
guns, six caissons, sixty horses, eighty
men, race for the brow Of the hill as if
he who should reach it first would. be
knighted.
A moment ago the battery was a
confused mob. We look again and
the six guns are in position, the de-
tached horses hurrying away, the
ammunition chests. open, and along
our line runs the command:
"Give them one more volley and
fall back to support the guns" We
have scarcely obeyed when boom
boom! opens the battery, and jets of
fire jump down and scorch the green
trees under which we fought and de-
SPARED. - las" e. III
The shattered old brigade has a
chance to breathe for the first time in
three hours, as we form a line and lie
down. What grim, cool fellows those
cannoneers are. Every man is a per-
feet machine. Bullets splash dust in
their faces, but they do not vince.
Bullets sing over and around; they do
not dodge. There goes one to the
earth, shot through the head as he
sponged his gun. That machinery
loses just one beat, misses just one
cog in the wheels and then works
away again a. before. sa.saH E
Every gun is using short-fuse shell.
The ground shakes and trembles, the
roar shuts out all sounds from a line
three miles long, and the shells go
shrieking into the swamp to cut trees
short off, to NOW great gaps in the
bushes, hunt out and shatter and
mangle men until their corpses cannot
be recognized as human. You would
think a tornado was bowling through
the forest, followed by pillows Of fire,
and yet men live through it-aye /
press forward to capture the battery.
We can hear their shouts as they form
the rush. s4tuH 80 \ sag & II
Now the shells are changed for
grape and canister, and guns are fred
S o fast that all reports blend into one
mighty roar. The shrek of a shell is
the wickedest sound in war, but moth
ing makes the flesh crawl like the
demoniacal singing, purring, whistling
grape shot, and the serpent-like hiss |
Of canister. f . ~ s
Mems legs and heads are torn from
bodies and bodies cut in two. A
round shot O shell takes two men out
OF the rank as it crashes through.
Grape and canister NOW a swath and
pile the dead on top of each other.
Through the smoke we see a swarm
OF men. 1t is not a battle line, but a
mob OF men desperate enough to battle
their bayonets in the flame of the
guns. The guns leap from the ground,
almost, as they are depressed on the
foe, and shrieks and screams and
shouts blend into n awful and steady
cry Twenty men out of the battery
are down, and the firing is interrupted.
The foe accept it as a sign of waver-
ing and come rushing on They are