, 1888-01-04
SHOOTING A sHARPsHooTER.
How the Confederates Got Rid of a Danger
Gus Foeman at the Siege of Petersburg.

How the Confederates Got Rid of a Danger
Gus Foeman at the Siege of Petersburg.
AT points around Petersburg, where
the lines of earthworks were only pistol
shot apart, the sharpshooter piled his
murderous rifle night and day, and they
became a living terror to both sides. l
was for two weeks in the Confederate
works, opposite Grants Fort He'll, and
although tons upon tons of federal shot
and shell were hurled at us, we lost more
men by the bullets of the sharpshooterB
than by all the cannonading. In the
Confederate works, just above the fort
which Butler blew up and which has since
been known as the Crater, the most effec-
tive cannon was silenced for two days by
a Federal sharpshooter who ensconced
himself only a stones throw away. lido not
know that the one man held the place for
two nights and two days, but we judged
so from the style of firing, and because
when we were finally rid of him no one
else took his place. He crept out from
h Federal line in q lark and rainy night,
dug q rife pit, banked up the dirt around
it. AMI killed two of our men between
daylight aId sunrise. He had q sixteen
Shooter rifle, and he gave all his attention
to ombrasure in the fort and before
NUN ltlb pl'tt VI dTIllleTy III LldL GIL
hras;Iro was 5ilenced.
\ round dozen Confederate sharp
shooters were detailed to kill the fellow
of, but he would not be killed. The dirt
was knocked about his ears in perfect
clouds by bullets, md now and then a
piece of filed artillery sent a shell plow-
ing along over him; but he was there to
stay. When night came we intended to
creep out and kin or make him a prison.
er, but 10! a whole company was brought
up and stationed III the ravine last be-
hind him, where their fire would sweep
the field around his pit, and we had to
turn to some other plan. He was there
in the morning, and he killed one man
and wounded n second before 8 o'clock.
Three pieces of light artillery played on
his pit until the guns had fired q dozen
shells each. but he was unframed. 1t
was plain that he had dug his pit so deep
and narrow that everything from our side
must pass over it, and it WINS certain that
we must try some other plan. Had he
been without close support three or four
men could have solved the problem
pretty quick, but there were sharpshoot-
ers by the hundreds in his rear, and that
rear SO close hat not a hat could show
above our works without being made the
target of n dozen bullets.
By noon of the second day we had had
four men killed and five wounded by one
Yankee sh~arpshooter, and the colonel
commanding had offered q $50 gold
piece to any one who would finish him
off. He might have made it $50, 900 for
all we could do, as everybody had cud-
geled his brains in vain for a plan. 1t
was about 5 o'clock in the afternoon that
a corporal belonging to some field
artillery stationed n mile or so above us
on thol lines came down to see q relative
of his, and when the situation had been
explained to him and he had looked over
the ground he said:
'Give me an hours time and I'll have
him out and win that gold piece"
He eturned to his command and BE-
cured half a dozen small fuse shells be-
longing to a mountain howitzer which
was then in park as of no account.
When they were brought up he made a
sling from the leather of a boo leg and
wo stout cords and then gathered a
dozen stones to practice with. While he
flung these stones one of the men timed
their fall, and in this way he knew how
to cut the fuses. The fifth rock, flung
high in the air on a curve, as a mortar
WouIu Throw IL, Ien so Close 10 the snarp-
shooters pit that the corporal was salts
fed. He then cut his fuses and began
throwing lighted sheh. The weight OF
them was about thirteen ounces, and
while they did not fly as high as the
rocks, the curve was the same. We
were all satisfied rs to what the result
would be. The fourth shell dropped
square into the pit and exploded as it
struck, and in the cloud of dirt blown
out was the sharpshooter's cap, tho stock
of his rifle and his canteen. Not another
shot was fired from tho pit, nor did any
Federal dare occupy it again.-"Ex-
Rebel in Detroit Free Press.