The National tribune., 1892-04-14

4 appear interested.
81 stretched wire across the stream-sub-
merged so that the keel of q vessel would touch
| it unwittingly, and this device told me when
| the range was correct. Going up or coming
| down. when the boat touched the wire, 1t was
| within range of one cluster of MY guns, and l
never permitted them to break the wire. On
the moment, the guns belcbed forth ana the
vessels Travelled straight to the bottom. The
hot shot that never missed the trip nor missed
the mark cut through the vessels hull like
rockets through snOwdrifts. No one on board
ever escaped
with no one left to tell of it, my battery
remained unknown and unmolested. The
sunken boats were missed, but nobody sur
missed what became of them. and the Yankees
had so many that they did not feel the loss
sufficiently to prompt an investigation.
" For the space of three months and 10 days
l and my men stood by our guns night and
day, ana destroyed from one to IS craft, OF
more or less Importance, in each "a hours.
only once was any attempt made to modest
Us. 4 Yankee General over in MISSISSIPPI
heard our cannonadisg, and casually sent a
regiment to reconnoiter. The transport landed
it on the river bank close to me, but out OF
range. / began to think that the days OF use
fulness were over for Fort Bluff, when the un-
suspectiug Colonel careessly marched his men
along the waters edge and halted them in
body directly over my signal wire.
" had prepared for such an emergency, but
had scarcely anticipated so favorable sltua-
ton. / had fastened cannon balls to the ends
of l00-foot chain, and loaded the two most
remote guns with them, so that the chain was
drawn taut across the face of my fort. L gave
these guns double charges of powder, and they
were discharged simultaneously at the proper
moment. The two projectiles carried the con-
Meeting chain horizontally waist-high against
that body OF stalwart men with the cleavage
force of bolt of lightning. 1t moved them
down like the kcenest sickle. 1t embraced
them all in its sweep, and spared not man.
Z" The effect was sickenng, and pray that L
may never again behold such spectacle.
Even after so long an interval / cannot recall
the scene without a shudder. One thousand
men stood by the rivers brink; one thousand
men perfect in health and manhood, happy
in the thought that the cruel war was almost
ended and home nearly in sight.
With no thought of danger they gaZed out
across the swift current or up the face OF the
steep bank OF sudden came flash, whz,
a roll of thunder sound. The regiment stands
there STILL but as look the heads waver, topple,
and fall with the trunks to the ground. For
moment longer the limbs stand upright, and
tiny streams of rich life-fuid spirit fountain
like into the air; for an instant only, and then
they, TOO, fall over and mingle with the shape
less mass. One thousand men, each with his
circle of loved ones praying for his safe return,
sent 10 meet their maker in the fraction of
moment 1t is an awful thought.
1t is hard for me to remember that these
men were enemies of our dear COnfederacy and
their removal a necessary consequence of war;
nothing less can Justify such slaughter. need
all the justification / can secure from this
thought to ease my conscience when recall
the incident.
81 caught the transport as It drifted within
range, and sent it TO join the feet at the bottom
of the deep stream. The remains of the
slaughtered men were pushed into the current,
and no word concerning them or the boat ever
reached the Yankee General. They help to
swell the roll of missing"
The listeners had been growing interested as
the story progressed. The old gentleman's eyes
were wide open now, and his head bobbed in
approval of the bloody details. When the
speaker paused he lifted his hand in gesture,
and there was a ring to his voice when he de-
manded:
Sir why did You quitf Young man, you
were doing good work. You began latc-that
is bad but you revenged the loss of some of
the noble dead-that is good; and you should
have held the fort and used it as long as there
was a Yankee gunboat afoat. What made you
gut?"
providence" said the tramp humbly, car
ranged that matter without consulting me.
would have been there yet perhaps, shooting
Yankee vessels, had not power stronger than
ordered otherwise. To be brief, the hundreds
Of sunl;en vessels, though the river was deep
and wide, obstructed the flow of water. l had
noticed the dam forming, as shown by the
ripple in the current but its proportions had
not alarmed me, and was gleeful at my sue
cess.
But one morning I was awakened by
strange sound like the rushing, crushing, DASH
ing OF mighty flood. i looked out upon the
river. but it was no longer a river. It's waters
were those Of placid lake. The current was
absent. My senses were too benumbed to fully
realize the truth at first, but when it did flash
upon me 1t was paralyzing in Its awfulness.
The river had cut new channel, and was run
ming west instead Of east Of the bluffs. For the
time forgot to mourn for my fort, now use
less, and thought only of the waters that were
sweeping over my plantation and the site of
my home.
"My darling wife and my beautiful children!
l knew without seeing that my once elegant
home was home no more; that had no homo,
no wife, no children; that was destitute, ut
terly and irretrievably. The remorseless river,
whose progress / had checked, was moro than
fully revenged.
my men assisted me to seat on the summit
of the bank. / gazed out upon the wide, swift
current but there was no familiar object to
ETebI NY eN bdI lIcTc All Uav ana ali
night and tried to interpret the language Of
the stream, but the one word revenge, revenge
revenge, was all could distinguish. 1t is still
ringing in my ears and the sound grows moro
harsh and bitter as the years go by"
lie took long rest at this stage Of the mar
rative but there were no remarks, and he con-
tinued:
From the stream below my darlings came
back 10 me in their mortality by the hands of
strangers. Ny adored wife and lovely girls, I
laid away for their final rcst-eleven of them.
Three were never recovered, but made them
mounds beside tho rest, and I try to imagine
them as lying there.
The dara that | built Of dead mems bones
burst, and the food overwhelmed me. Ny life-
blood and fortune mingled with the remorse-
less tide and went TO swell the sea. had al
ready lost my health through rash act which
/ viii relate, paranthctically.
In the haze Of evening / was standing by
my gun watching tho river for victims. A
small scTow- propeller came In sight, and pre-
pared for her. Having run short Of iron balls
] had loaded with q sharpened live oak stake.
The unsuspecting vessel touched the wire, and
boom went my gun. At the same instant the
boats flag that had been idly tapping on the
STAFF, 1oatcd out on the breeze and revealed
the glorious stars and bars The sight OF the
Gag, the fash of the gun, and the realization
that j was firing into a friendly craft, and, in
truth, the only one that had seen, were IN
Simultaneous, and simultaneously came the i'm