The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1892-06-14
THE HELL TRAPS OF WAR.
The Terrible Arabs that Wrought Death
and Destruction.

and Destruction.
We have line of breastworks strong
enough to stand artillery, and we have
crowned it with head logs" By that
is meant a log so placed that a soldier
can fire under it while it protects his
head. Where there are head logs men
kneel and fire at a dead rest, and four
bullets out of five strike a human tar
get. A regiment thus sheltered will
check and drive back three times it's
strength. 1t was done time and again
on both sides during the war.
But bloodthirsty war was not salts
fed with the almost perfect immunity
offered by earthwork and breastwork
and head log. 1t sought for still further
advantage, and found it in that hell
trap, the abatis. If there is a forest in
front the trees are cut down, tops to
the enemy, and the limbs are sharp
ened and interlaced until a fox could
hardly make his way through the
tangle. When the trees are not con
venient, fence rails, boards, limbs and
brush are used. The object is to check
and hold the enemy under fire.
See what a hell trap we have set in
front of our 500 men! There are stakes
driven into the earth at an angle and
then sharpened. They are bound to-
gether with telegraph wire, and two
strong men cannot pull n out of
place. For chinking we have used
the branches of wild plum trees and
the blackberry bushes from along the
fence. You could not drive wild horses
over such an abatis. A stampeding
herd of buffalo would break it down,
but there would be a winrow of dead
and wounded piled up before it.
The hell trap has been ready for two
hours when the prey appears. Our
line has been strung out to the left I'M
til there are weak spots. This looks
like one of them to the enemy who is
searching. The lay of the ground hides
the abatis from his view and he can
see only that part of the breastwork
running over the hill. We have no
artillery here. We can see the men
plainly as they form for a charge. The
intervals between the bodies as they
swing into position proves that there
are four regiments. They leave the
cover of the woods as steadily as if on
parade, and it is a handsome sight to
see them advance.
The order runs along our line to hold
our fire until they are checked by the
hell trap. They know that our battle
line is here, but they cannot see a man
of us. They are within easy musket
range when the order is given to charge,
and they advance with yells and hur-
rahs. Had we been in double line with
out protection that living wedge would
have driven it's way through us to the
rear Of the army. Not a shot was fired
until they had recoiled from the abatis.
1t broke their formation at once and
they were a mob after that. Some
flung down their mUskets and sought
to pull UP the stakes, others fired
standing there exposed; some there
were who broke back to the rear, but
they were few in number.
We called it war then, and next day
our skeleton regiment was compli-
mented in general orders for having
saved the left wing. AS n remem
bers it now, he half fears to be charged
with murder. They were brave men.
but they had no show. The jaws Of
the hell trap held officer and private
fast while the muskets under the heaG
logs famed and cracked and sem
death into the confused and helpless