The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-11-28
fort for sorrow like that and 1 hast


ened away.
The resounding cannonade was al
most harmless. It did not take
soldier to tell that there was no busl-
ness in it but the expenditure OF
ammunition. There was so much iron
flying that the sound of it rasping
through the shivering air could be
heard distinctly. The cannons bel
lowed and the shot hummed low and
fiercely. The old town was invisible,
but two church steeples pierced the
fog. The laying of the pontoons under
the fire of Mississippi rifiemen was
sacrifice of brave men. Officers who
fell in that service and were carried to
the rear were strewn thickly on the
grass. The confederates paid very
little attention to the bombardment.
It meant nothing to them but that
something was about to take place.
Their rifiemen in the cellars were well
protected, and shot the men atwork on
the pontoons at their pleasure. 1t was
no trick at all for marksman to kill
soldier at every shot. Why all of the
bridge builders were not shot down l
could not understand. When the
bridges were completed there was such
a rush, the riflemen left the cellars. 1t
was not Lees policy to hold the town.
It was trap Soon the distribution Of
tobacco taken in Fredericksburg be-
came very interesting occupation for
many soldiers. The confederates fired
a few pieces of artillery, and Whit
worth gun just from England broke
the monotony Of sound by hurting
bolt that as it few gave a long shrill
whistle. 1t was like the high note OF
a whip, if one could cut the air for
mile.
The night that Stonewan jackson
wanted Lee to assail the national
troops cooped up in the town, l crossed
the river in company with Col Jones.
of Ohio, handsome, charming man
and educated soldier, who fell at Chick
amauga at the head of his regiment.
Fredericksburg was pokerish looking
place. The river was very dark, save
where it flashed red in the glare OF the
faring torches. The town was a dis
NAL one, and the silence was sinister.
We called on Gen. Burns, whose head
quarters were in the second story in
bedroom over the dining-room of the
house of the mayor. Three shells had
entered the room and exploded in it.
The walls and ceiling displayed the
distribution of the fragments. Over
the mantel piece was red, ragged
hole, by shot through the brick Chin
ney The colonel had coffee with
canned milk, and mutton chops whose
flavor was good, and he preferred not
to talk of the situation. did not try
to interview him.
union army from first to last, and the
battle scenes to me were terrible. l
saw the celebrated charge of the Irish
brigade as distinctly as l ever saw a
play. Joe Hooker rode by with his
brilliant face, and Sickles passed with
group of lancers. Burnside was walk
ing in the yard at the Phillips house,
his saber Gathering on the gravel.
There was suddenly the opening of a
battery or two in our field artillery on
the Fredericksburg side of the river.
The shots were exceedingly rapid, red
flashes in the white gloom of pearly
powder cloud, and then the wild charge
on the stone wall. It was not war, it
was madness. The cloud that had
| been laced with streams of jagged
| fame, and writhing and vibrating as
if charged with electricity, grew quiet.
| Then as the blue column moved for
ward there was the crackle of rifles
| like thousand packsof Chinese crack
| ers, and from that CHASTITY gulf of
flame but few of the boys in blue reap
| peared.
l saw the cloud of battle over Frank
Inns haEking movement far down the
river, where alone there was rational
hope of doing anything. But the pillar
| of cloud did not advance, and the
rumbling of many guns was not con-
tinued. There was temporary sue
cess there, and two or three hundred
North Carolina troops were taken pris-
oners. 1t was pathetic to see their
homemade outfits, their knapsacks OF
worn carpets-carpets used as blankets
and coverlets and patchwork quilts
that had seen home service, the but
ternut jackets and ragged hats. had
seen North Carolinians before, for my
fathers people were of them. He was
born in that state, and immigrants
from the old state often wandered to
Ohio when I was a boy, believing in
perpetual motion and that snow that
fell in April made ''eye-water' that was
a specific. l saw in the poor prisoners
many things that reminded me of "oui
folks in the old times. Those North
Carolina boys were lank, yellow
weather-beaten, rough haired, with
bony limbs, and wore ragged jackets.
They had plenty of teeth and eyes, and
many of them would be called Jays
and ''greenhorns,' but they were ter
rible soldiers, and had the hardihood
of wild animals, tireless on the march
as wolves, and glad to get an ear OF
corn for atration, while hunk OF shoa'
was luxury, and a chew OF tobacco
dissipation. Whisky was dream OF
the impossible. One tall fellow. with
a rubber blanket, said, with slow. sly
smile. he "got it at Manassas. which
was the name the confeds- had fol
Bull Run, but he meant tbs second
Manassas, where some of Pope's trains
were captured: and he hoped to God
arnitv- he said. this thing could be