Arizona republican., 1892-10-27

on the same piece dropped away with a
shattered elbow and his successor was shot
down before the loading was finished. At
another piece corporal was struck by a
bullet while serving a cartridge. He
crawled around to the breech and begged
to have lone more shot," sighted the gun
and arose TO pull the lanyard, when solid
shot struck him in the breast and he fell
dead across the trail. In another redoubt
the fight was merrier for time. A sold
shot from a Union battering gun tore
through the heavy wall and dropped still.
One of the cannoneers picked it up and
said. Lets send IL back again" For the
sport Of IL II was ranmed into gun and
sent down the hill into the sad crowd il
had been intended TO aid and not destroy
That cannoneer was badly wounded be-
fore the laugh over his joke had died away
1t cost the Tigers 30 men killed and
wounded TO hold Marye's Hill that day,
and they went through another tussle be-
fore the affair was over that cost them 10
killed and wounded, 80 captured and
cannon made prizes by the enemy. That
hitch they didn't hold the hill either
When Sedgwick's Sixth corps stormed
those heights on Sunday, May 3, 1853, four
guns Of the Washington artillery were
stationed to guard them. The remainder
with numerous infantry troops, were in
reserve, but somehow the assailants were
on the crest before the reserves could
rally to save it. When they did finally
rally, many of them shared the fate of the
front line.
At Gettysburg the Washingtons opened
the cannonading against Cemetery Ridge
to make Pickett's job easier, but there
was no glory to win for Confederate can
noneers in a fight where their side made
the charges. Also at Chiekamauga,
six weeks later, where they were with
Lon6street's corps, the Confederate artil-
lerists chiefly looked on while the infantry
captured cannon TO re-equip the batteries.
After the western campaign ended, in 1863,
the battalion was ordered to the defense of
Richmond, on the James river line. In 1864
it was in the thick of the fighting at Drew
ry's Bluff and at Petersburg, never miss
ing battle, for the day of reserves in the
southern camps was over. At Drewry's
Bluff, May 16, 1864, the battalion lost 80
killed and wounded. A month later it en-
tered the works at Petersburg and staid
there to the end. The Second company
built and manned Fort 'Damnation,"
across the way from the Union Fort
"Hell." Men were so scarce that the
drivers turned cannoneers. Every battery
in the battalion was differed by men who
began as privates in 1861. In the brilliant
fight at Fort Gregg, the last Confederate
stronghold to give in when the works fell,
on April q 1885, Lieut. McElroy, of the
Washingtons, with a band of twenty-five
drivers, handled the guns. The defense
was one of the most noted of the war
One year after Walton's battalion left
New Orleans fifth company of the Wash
ington artillery joined Beauregard's COM
mand at Shiloh. 1t bore the corps symbol
of the tigers head on all the desperate
fields of the west as valiantly as the First
battalion had done in the east. So the
men who hunted with Sherman, Thomas
and "Old Rosy also looked into the fierce
eyes and felt the keen tushes of the beast
that roamed SO wide from his native jungle
In the Louisiana lowlands.
GEORGE l.. KIIMER.