The diamond drill. (Crystal Falls, Iron County, Mich.) 1887-1996, 1888-12-08

Description ola battlefield sccne.--Sot ~
Historians Tell 81 IL. but Fight
Ing Men Known IL TO He.

Did you ever see battery fako POI
sitionP
IL hasn't the thrill of cavalry
charge. nor the grimness Of line of
bayonets moving slowly and dctermin-
eddy on. but there is peculiar excite
ment about II that makes old veterans
rise la their saddles and cheer
We have been lighting at the edge
OF the woods. Every cartrdge-box
has been cmpticd once or more. and
one-fourth of the brigade has melted
away in dead and wounded and miss
ing. Not 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
go to pieces and tho enemy will pour
through tho gap.
Here comes help!
Down the crowded highway gallops
a battery, withdrawn from some other
position 10 save ours. The field
fence is scattered while you could
count thirty. and tho guns rushed for
the hills behind us. Six horses To a
piece--three riders TO each gun. Over
dry bitches where farmer would not
drive wagon. through clumps of
bushes. over logs foot thick. every
horse on the gallop, every rider LASH
ing his team and yelling-the sight be-
hind us making us forget the foe in
front. The guns jump two feet high
as the heavy wheels strike rock or
log but not horse slackens his pace.
not cannoneer loses his seat. Six
guns. six caissons. sixty horses. eighty
men, race for the brow of the hill rs VI
he who should reach IL first would be
knighted.
A moment ago the battery was
confused mob. We look again and
the six guns are in position, the de-
tachod horses hurrying away. the am
munition chests open, and along our
line runs the commands:
"Give them one more volley and fall
back 10 support tho guns" We have
scarcely obeyed when boom! boom!
opens tho battery, and jets Of fire Jump
down and scorch the green trees under
which we fought and despaired.
The shattered old brigade has
chance TO breathe for the first time in
three hours as we form line and lie
down. What grim, cool fellows those
cannoneers are. Every man Is 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 10 the
earth, shot through the head rs he
sponged his gun. That machinery
loses Just one beat, misses just one cog
in the wheels and then works away
again as before.
Every gun is using short fuse shell.
Tho ground shakes and trembles, the
roar shuts out all sounds from line
three miles long, and the shells go
shrieking into the swamp to cut trees
short off, TO NOW great gaps in tho
bushes, hunt out and shatter and man
gle men until their corpses cannot be
recognized ms human. You would
think tornado was bowling through
the forest, followed by billows Of fire,
and yet men live through it--aycl
press forward to capture the battery.
We can hear their shouts as they form
the rush.
Now the shells arc changed for grape
and canister. and guns are fired SO fast
that all reports blend into one mighty
roar The shrek of shell Is tho
wickcdest sound in the war, but moth
ing makes flesh crawl like the demo-
niacal singing, purring, whistlng
grape shot, and the scrpcnt-like hiss of
canister.
Mems legs and heads are torn from
bodies and bodies cut i'm two. A round
shot or shell takes two men out Of tho
rank as il crashes through. Grape and
canister NOW a swath and pile tho
dead on top Of each other.
Through the smoke wo see n swarm
OF men. 1t Is not battle line, but
mob OF men desperate enough TO batho
their bayonets In the flame of the guns.
The guns leap from the ground. al
most, rs they are depressed on the foe.
and shiicks and screams and shouts
blend into one awful and steady cry.
Twenty men out OF the battery are
down. and the firing is interrupted.
The foe accept IL as a sign OF wayer-
ing and come rushing on. They are
not ten feet away when the guns give
them the last shot. That discharge
picks wing men oil their feet and
throws them into tho swamp, u black
eDed. bloody mass.
Up. now, us the enemy are among
the guns. There Is silence OF ten
seconds. and then tho flash and roar OF
moro than 5000 muskeis and a rush
forward with bayoncts. For what2
Neither ON the right nor left nor in
front of us Is a living foel There are
corpses around us which have been
struck by three. four, and even six
bullets, and nowhere on this acre Of
ground Is wounded man. The wheels
of the guns cannot move until the
blockade of dead is removed. Men
sannot pass from caission to gun with