The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-06-26
Soldiers 8uo9et.
The Horrors OF War.

There is something terribly menacing
in the ping of a musket-ball, as it cuts
the air above the heads of the men in
line-something to try the nerves of
the bravest in the rush of solid shot,
but of all the missiles in war the scream
of shell is the wickedest. A bomb
shell flies with long w-o-u-s-hl"-
something like the rush of big sky
rocket-and there are shells used by the
light artillery which fly with sort of
long-drawn sigh, not at all terrifying;
but the man who hears the scream of
a Whitworth shell will never forget the
sound to the day of his death. 1t is a
concentration of the war-whoop of an
Indian, the snarl of a tiger, the scream
of a woman in mortal terror. 1t begins
afar off with a muttered threat of ven
geance; it grows upon the ear with a
howl as of wolves in pursuit of lone
traveller; it comes nearer with shrieks
of baffled rage; it is at hand with scream
which can be likened to nothing but the
cries of mob mad for death and de-
struction. have seen adozen men killed
by these Whtworth shells, and | verify
believe that most of them were so terri
fed by the sounds that they suffered
nothing in the moment of death. One
could tell, after a few experiences,
whether the shell was in the direct line
or to the right orleft, but the coming ever
brought a feeling of helplessness-a
sort of dumb terror which held the limbs
captive. One could not have run away
had he so desired, but where could
one run to? Who could say Just where
these terrors would fall after their
flight, the instant they were to explode
and send their fragments hither and
thilher to search out and claim their
victims? When the blockader1 lay off
the mouth of the Cape Fear river two
or three of the Whitworth guns were
in constant use by the confederates.
They had a range of six miles, and
were almost as accurate as rifles. When
ever blockader ventured within range
by daylight she became the target for
Whitworth. If the wind was off shore
we could hear one of the shells almost
as soon as it left the muzzle of the gun.
Its flight began with shrek of fiend-
ish glee, changed to moan of agony,
rose to scream for vengeance, and the
last quarter of mile was a combina-
ton of scream and shrek which brought
the hair on end and the cold chills to
the spine. The man who pretended
not to fear them was base hypocrite.
: The man whose ears can take in those
sounds without affecting his nerve
does not live to do battle. Our vessel
was struck two or three times, and on
five or six occasions had close calls,
but the shells which struck were no
more terrifying than those which
6ropna6 into tho watar with tho b;cO IF
a monster serpent, one hundred feet
at the instant of contact means more
than death. 1t means such complete
humiliation as can be effected in no
other manner on earth, except by the
explosion of gunpowder or nitro-glycer-
inc. The victim may see flash, hear
roar, but it must come in the fftieth
part of second. The vengeance of
man grants him the merest iota of time.
Those to the right and left see flash
of flame and hear an explosion and the
w-h-i-n-g" of fragments, but the vic
tim-perhaps the man on his immediate
right or left-has been blotted off the
face of the earth as if he had never ex-
listed. When the roar of battle had
died away to low growl, when the
growl had become an occasional NUT
ter, when the mutter had lapsed to a
gasp, in which man in blue or gray
yields up his life to stray bullet, we
will make a search There is blood on
the parched grass, bits of burned cloth
ing on limb and bush, a lock of hair here
and there, with bit of scalp attached.
We may find a button or two, broken
and twisted gun-barrel or bayonet, the
visor of soldiers cap. That is all
These are the relics-the fragments-ot
a soldier struck by shell. That is, they
may be. Sometimes not even button
is found-nothing but a splash on the
earth to show that blood and fragments
fell therefor. NetU York Sun.