The National tribune., 1893-08-03
If march and before the line of battle was

of march and before the line of battle was
formed.
On reaching the ground that Col Saunders
wished to plant his artillery, he turned
around on his horse and said to me:
You will dismount your command here,
and send your horses down under the hill
out of range of the enemy's guns. You will
send so men of your command to the front
as skirnishers. You will support the artil-
lery with the remainder"
The artillery was brought up and put into
position. My men lay down with their
faces to the ground just over the crest of
the ridge in the rear of our artillery, while
l stood within 20 feet of the guns, where L
again can attest the comrades statement of
the enemy's close and rapid shooting, and
especially the grape and canister spoken of
by him; for more than a hundred times, in
! speaking of that occurrence, could compare
it to nothing better than that of a man tax
ing up handful of shelled corn or beans
and throwing them around your feet.
The only man wounded by the rebel aItil-
lery was standing within four feet of me
when he was hit by a solid shot, breaking
off three ribs and turning them back on the
hinge of the backbone, where they hung.
l looked right into the hollow of the man.
He stopped down, half bent, and walked
away about three rods distant, and lay down
behind a large fallen tree.
Inasmuch as two of the battery boys have
claimed that they fired moresthan the three
shots that / described in my preceding arti-
Gle, | also accept it as true, for they fired
very rapidly, and as had very warm place
in my heart for that battery, and the man
ner in which the boys worked it, described
only the shots that took effect. ] did not
want the readers of THE NATIONAL TRIB-
UNE to know that they had fired any miss
shots, or wasted their ammunition, and If
the battery boys had kept still no one would
have known outside of themselves that they
had fired IL shots for naught.
Let me say, right here that in the follow
ing week after the publication of my reply
to Comrade Morgan | received three letters
on the subject of the Saunders raid. One
from CoInrade Baird, of Nebraska who was
of the detail from the 10TH ILL., 1t read
as follows: Il am SO glad that you replied
to Comrade Morgan. | had thought OF do
ing it myself, but had some time ago writ
ten an article which drew such fire and
heated me SO hot that have never had the
nerve to try it again. and want to thank
you for that article. That battery was the
beau ideal of my idea of battery. l may,
however, be partial, as it was from Ohio; as
/ was formerly from that State myself.
Now, Captain, you were right, eternally;
right all the way through Tennessee and
back into Kentucky"
Another from Iowa, from a comrade of Co.
K from nay own regiment.
Another from gentleman from Toledo,
o., which reads as follows: u have just
read your article on the Saunders raid, and
could not refrain from writing you. i was
an interested spectator in Knoxville at the
time of which you write. We were very
anxious to have you come into the city; a
thing you could have easily done. Col. Nc
Chung, spoken of, was my wife's uncle; the
ball that shot him in two where the legs
join the body went through bale of cotton,
making hole large enough for man TO run
his arm through, aud then killed two other
rebels. The battery You spoke of as taking
its flight through the air was manned by
troops from Florida. You left wounded
man near where your battery stood."-R. G.
RANKIN, Captain 7th Ohio Cav, Ripley, o.
ITO be continued