San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-03-04

L
Junius, for love you. Why should Ideny
| it now? Oh, is there nothing can do?"
Yes" replied the young soldier; eff you
could fire that old gun once more believe
-I-could die happy"
With these words he fell back insensible
| Margaret looked about her wildly and
wrung her hands. The firing from the OPP
posite side of the creek had almost ceased.
Far off, on either hand, she could see the
Union lines swaying to and fro as the
cloud of battle rose; here, the CLEAN of
bayonets as a charge was made or re-
PEELED; there, the CLINT of lifted sabers as
a squadron of cavalry rode fiercely into
some fiery gulf; and again, the red light
ming of a battery hurting it's storm of death
messengers through pail of white smoke
Immediately in front of where she stood,
and some 1900 yards distant, the face of
the hill was swarming with dense masses
of gray uniforms, topped with forest of
dancing bayonets and waving colors. The
Union center was crushed and broken by
the terrific fire of the Confederate batteries,
though the wings, desperately fighting,
| still held their ground. The farseeing eve
| of the brilliant soldier in command of the
southern forces detected his advantage and
| prepared to make use of it. He ordered a
| heavy column to occupy the abandoned
| Union front, and cutting the lines in two
| to roll up the wings on either flank. And
to oppose him there was only a single old
thirty FOUNDER iron cannon and weeping
| girl!
Margaret believed that her lover was
| dead, but she remembered his last wish
that the cannon might be fired yet once
ha OH Low
boxes of cartridges, stands of grape and
| canister and bags of shrapnel. Wild,
reckless, really in temporary delirium, the
| girl seized a sack of powder, tore it open
and pushed it into the gun. For so wide
and gaping a throat it seemed too little,
and she added a second sack. Then she
thrust in stand of grape and rammed it
| home with her vigorous young arms. She
had not the slightest knowledge of how a
cannon should be loaded-only to her mind
| to load was to fill full-and she proceeded
to cram the ancient piece to its very muz-
zle with grape, canister and shrapnel
| Sobbing aloud all the while she worked
rapidly and with fierce, unrefecting en-
ergy She poured a portion of the powder
into the vent of the gun and looked around
| for fire to touch it off. At little distance
| fringe of live coal She picked it up and
wound it about the handle of the rammer,
| which she still held in her grasp. Casting
one glance at the CHASTITY face of the young
man and another at the huge gray column
upon the opposite hill, she closed her eyes
and thrust forward the burning rod.
4 Then H.... a
The very earth seemed to open at hel
1 Sha oil of 40 Il
a shock that threw her prone upon the
earth. There was a roar as if the very
skies were rent in twain; an angry, snarl-
ing whistle, as of a thousand gigantic, in
furiated bees, and far away upon the op-
posite height a tumult of yells, shouts and
cries. When deaf and reeling she dared
| open her eyes again, she saw that the old
| cannon, with piece broken out of its
| muzzle, lay upon its side amid the frag-
| ments of its carriage. And there in the
dense, gray column was something like a
wide lane torn directly though its center.
1t had ceased to advance; its cleaning
bayonets no longer stood in parallel lines,
but were mixed together and tossing wild
| " hither and thither. Mounted officers
were riding among the disordered ranks,
| commanding, imploring, imprecating; but
"Seel seer' murmured a feeble, excited
| voice close beside her, "the old gun has
| turned theml Oh, Maggie my little
done this day. And look, lookl there goes
Doubleday's men with the bayonet! Hur-
rahl hur"-
| Again he tainted, but this time with a
smile on his white lips. Trembling hor-
| nj lob har In
fainting herself, the girl knelt by the
wounded soldiers side and raised his head
| upon her lap. She was dimly conscious
| passing by at doublequick She heard
| shrill, jubilant bugle calls and wild hur-
| rahs, and knew by some mysterious clair
voyance that the battle was won.
| Though few persons know the truth, it
was the timely discharge of the old, de-
spised thirty FOUNDER, triple loaded by the
ignorant hands of a girl, and casting
hundredweight of balls and fragments
| straight into the head of the advancing
Confederates, that turned the tide of the
| great battle, checked the onset of the con.
| fident foe and gave the Union reserves an
opportunity to come up and fling them
| selves into the imminent gap.
Lieutenant Willoughby lay helpless
many weeks in the Purvis dwelling, but
under Margaret's nursing he ultimately
recovered and fought through the war
with honor and promotion. Before he re-
turned to his command Margaret Purvis
became Mrs. Willoughby. Among her
most valued possessions is the medal which
General Meade took off his own breast and
pinned upon hers when, after the battle, he
was told the story of the old gun.-Charles
Lotus Hildreth in Independent.
He Got His Potatoes Dug.
Uncle Amos is little old yellow man,