The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1893-09-14


riages from the dead animals. At the cry
1.-THE battery is in dangerr' hundreds Of
troopers turned back, but Shelby said:
Fifty, only flftyl Bring the battery with
You or remain yourselves," The dead horses
were cleared away, ropes attached and the
guns dragged back safe to the lines Fifteen
only of the volunteers got out unscathed.
and 90 remained" where they fell
In Shelby's Missouri raid Of 1862 when
he rode into the heart of the enemy's coun-
try 500 miles and fought almost hourly for
every day for 90 consecutive days, the artil-
lery was up with the flying column. One
morning the raiders, numbering 800, were
marshaled on naked prairie in front of an
equal number Of enemies. The meeting was
sudden, Shelby's men having looked up
from their work Of destroying railroads to
find fight on hand. Telling off couple
OF squadrons for reserve, the Morgan OF the
border shouted to his artillery chieftain
charge with your battery as charge and
unlimber when you see their line waver,
for I'll ride It down like the prairie grass
under foot" The bhgle sounded Charged
q shout ran along the line as spurs struck
home, but the enemy didn't wait to be rid
den down. They turned, and Collins can
nonsers, with long range shells, We're the
only ones 70 get Il shot at the flying horse
men.
Collins hottest fight as told by his bat
tie losses was at Prairie damn, Ark, soon
after he 'urned from the great raid Shell
by was o. .post for Prices army, which lay
intrenched at Camden. The Union army
under Steele, marched on Camden, and
Shelby offered battle on the prairie, with
the battery in the center and the troops.
mounted, on either side. First two 6-gun
Union batteries opened on Collins, then a
third and a fourth, until "a guns were
trained upon the group Of six that were
firing rapidly and with precision. The con
test lasted four hsurs, and three separate
attacks were repulsed. All of the battery
horses were cut down, and II cannoneers
fell among the guns. which were hauled off
by hand at nightfall.
The carnage was greater in Collins ranks
than in any other battery In the war. The
number killed was 81. Cooper's Pennsyl
vania battery (Union) lost 81 killed. but the
loss fell on probably over 200 men. Collins
battery mustered all told but 81 men. In.
GLIDING the wounded, which were 20, the
casualties numbered 30, almost 90 per cent
OF the fighting men. The proportion of
killed to wounded, 81 to %. tells story of
bloody work. 1t is almost three times rs
great rs the average. The Confederates had
a battery which lost more in numbers than
did Enthusiastically Fifth company Of
Washington artillery. II lost 43 killed. But
the loss fell upon 3Ss men and amounts to
but about II per cent. while the loss among
Collins men was over "a per cent.
The figures are all the more astounding
because they represent losses incurred in
cavalry cdmbats, and in struggling border
warfare at that. The crack regiments of the
Union cavalry belonged to the army of the
Potomac and fought in those desperate bat
ties with Stuart. Hampton, the Lees and
Rosser in the Gettysburg, Wilderness and
Shenandoah campaigns of 1861. Their
losses In killed ranged between and 0per
cent Of the number borne on the rolls So
the record of Collins horse battery is with
out parallel In the annals Of bold and des-
perate cavalry fighting.
GEORGE l.. KILMER