The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1892-11-22


were moving resistlessly on with infantry,
cavalry and artillery, shooting, slashing
and bayonetng wherever their march was
resisted. \ brief struggle made by Prem.
tiss' pickets and the detached companies
sent hastily to their support gave the re-
serves time to fall in on the camp parade,
but no more.
The Confederate artillery dashed up
close enough to throw canister into camp
before Prentiss' men were in line One of
the batteries, drawn by white horses,
wheeled into position OH knoll between
two camps, expended some forty rounds of
Shell and case shot i'll Il group of tents that
the Confederate infantry were about to
charge and then turned to beat the bush in
another camp \ Union battery. which
was probably the Fifth Ohio, took hand
to hold up the victorious White Horse can
noneers, but after few shots retired and
n brigade of Confederate infantry overran
the ground, driving Prcntiss' men at the
point of the bayonct Again and again
was this repeated, the White Horse outfit
making havoc among foes wherever it APP
peared and winning huzzahs from it's
friends. The battery was new one that
only reached the front in time TO join the
march on Shiloh. Neither the officers nor
men had ever seen battlefield, and the
company was stranger to the leaders of
Its own division. 1t was not unheralded of
fame, though, for it was the fifth company
of the famous Washington artillery, of
New Orleans, n troop Of cannoneers that
fought under the device of tigers head,
and whose banner had foated above the
iron Threats beching fire in Mexico and ut
Bull Run
After two or three camps had been
cleaned out ut Shiloh the Confederate bri-
gades moved on without order, attacking
everything in sight, and the White Horse
battery, as it was named from it's distin-
gushing mark, got separated from the
troops with which it had been ordered to
march. The young captain asked one of
the generals what lie should do under the
circumstances, and the curt answer, $50
where you hear the most firing" was Just
the one to make novice feel ut home
on new scene among old hands. The
tigers head bobbed up in the g,iidons of
the White Horse battery here, there and
everywhere in the thick of the melee until
Shiloh's first day was won. Having got
its carte blanche, the battery galloped on
until it reached the parade in front of IL
camp whose occupants showed fight most
stubbornly. The men had found cover
among the tents, having been driven back
from one front position after another.
They belonged to the Twenty-frst, Twenty
third and Twenty-fifth Missouri, the Fiji
tenth and Sixteenth Iowa and the Six
tenth Wisconsin, and, like true westcrners,
when their line of battle was broken rested
their cause upon good rifle practice
Their tents were no protection against
cannon shots except to screen the targets
from Confederate view, but served that
purpose admirably for n time The best
marksmen-and all were pretty good ones
crowded under and between the frail
canvas coops to within IL few yards of the
guns of the reckless Lousanians cut loop
holes through the tents, and lying flat
picked oil the connoneers, battery horses
ami officer mounts. 1t was then that the
artillery novices learned how two can play
ut the game of slaughter, but they faced
the music without supports, resisting des-
peratc charges for the capture of their guns
The tents of Prcntiss' men were actually
cut into ribbons before their owners Welded
the ground, and in fact more of them fell
III that novel fight than survived to tell of
1t. After clearing the camp the Louisiap-
lans galloped their guns forward between
the rows of dead to he met and checked
again and again by the same men, FINALLY
they struck the Union reserves thnt hal