The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-10-28
A BATTERY IN ACTION.
Graphic Description of a Thrii1ing Scene on
the Battlefield.

Graphic Description Of a Thrilling Scene on
the Battlefield.
One who has fought on many q battle field
writes the thrilling description Of the
WORK of q battery of ak guns:
Did You ever see q battery take ~positionf
1t hasn't the thrill of q cavalry charge. nor the
grimness of q line of ~bsyonsts moving slowly
and dsterminedly on, but there is o peculiar ex-
element about it that makes old veterans rise
in their saddles aud cheer.
We have been fighting at the edge or 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 q cheer is heard 10 the whole brigade.
We know that we are being driven foot by foot.
and that when We break once more the line will
60 to pieces aud the enemy will pour through
the gap.
Here comes help!
Down the crowded highway gallops a battery,
Withdrawn from some other position To save
ours. The field fence il scattered while you
could count thirty, and the guns rush for the
hills behind US. Six horses TO q ~piece-thres
riders to each gun. Over dry bitches where .
farmer would not drives wagon. through clumps
Of bushes, over logs . foot thick. every horse on
the eallop, every rider flashing his team and
yslliug-the sight behind US making rs forget
the foe 10 front. The guns jump two feet high
as the heavy wheels strike . rock or log, but not
q horse slackens bis pace, not O cannoneer loses
his seat. Six guns, six caissons. sixty horses.
eighty men. race for the brow OF the bill as IL he
who should reach it fret would be kuighted.
A moment ago the battery was . confused
moi. We look again and the six guns are in
position, the detached horses hurrying away,
the ammunition chests open, and along our line
runs the command:
s'Givs them one more volley and fall back to
support the guns" We have scarcely ooeyed
whom boom! booml opeus the battery, and jets
of fire jump down and scorch the green trees
under which we fought and despaired.
The shattered old brigade has 8 chance to
breathe for the first time In three hours. as We
form Q line and lie down. What grim. cool fel-
lows those cannonsers 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 aud then
works away again as before.
Every gun 10 usiug shortfrse shell. The
ground shakes and trenblss, the roar shuts out
all sounds from a line three miles long. and the
shells 60 ehrieking into the swamp to cut trees
short off, to NOW great gaps In the bushes. hunt
out and shatter and mangle men until their
c0rpses can not DO recognized as human. You
would think q tornado was bowling through the
forest, followed by pillows Of fire, and yet men
live through it-ayel press forward TO capture
the battery. We can hear their shouts as they
form for the rush.
Now the shells are changed for grape and can
lister, and guns are fred SO fast that all reports
iuko ikAg Icdf. Al shtf'h u
shell is the wickeoest sonpd In war, but nothing
makes the flesh crawl like the demoniacal sing
ing, purrine, whistling grape shot. and the ser
pent-like hiss OF canister.
Mems legs and heads are torn from bodies,
and bodies cut in two. A round shot or shell
takes two men out Of the rank as IL crashes
through. Grape and canister now . swath
and pile the dead on top OF each other.
Through the smoke we see u swarm Of men.
1t is not q battls-line. but a mob Of men desper-
ate enough to battle their bsyonets in the fame
of the guns. The guns leap from the ground.
almoet, as they are depressed on the foe, aud
shrieks and screams and shouts blend into one
awful and steady cry. Twenty men out OF the
battery are snot down. and the firing lie inter
rupted. The foe accepts IL az Q sign of wavering,
and como rushing on. They are not ten feet
away when the guns give them the last shot.
That discharge picks living men OF their feet
and throws them into the swamp, . blsckened,
bloody mass.
Up, now, a. the enemy are among the guns
There 10 = silenee of ten srconds, aud then the
flash and roar OF more than 5000 muskeis and q
rush forward with bayonets. For what Neither
on the right nor left nor IN front OF us IL a hv-
ing foe! There are cogpses around Us which
have been struck by three. four, and even six
bullets, and no where on this acrs Of ground IL .
wounded man. The wheels Of the guns cannot
move until the blockade Of dad bodies v 70