Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1895-09-05
A WAR STORY.

DSu IuLIGI auu Il ItlGb III 5AlG IO
tunda of the capitol, remarked Mr.
Sayers, chairman of the appropria
tions committee of the last house,
to Star writer one day, 'the last
time | saw him. 1t was not lone
before the old generals death, and
the occasion, il l remember correct
ly, was some appearance he had to
make before the supreme court in
the case of the Chicago anarchists.
AS ! shook the old mans hand my
memory Travelled back to time
when Buffers name was the one
liked the least and Buffers hands
the last ones into which / cared to
fall.
i was rather young, a mere boy,
in Texas when the war broke like
storm. Naturally, with my geo.
graphy, / went with the Confeder-
acy. l was in the artillery. One
day we captured a battery of three
brass guns. 1t was given to me to
command, and the day l got that
battery was the proudest day in my
life. Then as / look back it still
seems to me that those six brass
field guns were the most beautiful
things that ] ever saw.
'Of course | was full of ardor.
| burned to do something with my
battery. Such was my anxiety to
get into trouble with those guns
that ! dragged a couple over to the
Mississippi-we were in Louisiana
at the time-and pulled on a fight
with stray gunboat belonging to
the Yankees which found prowl-
ing around. We had O sharp, spit
fire time of it for few moments,
when lucky shot from one of my
guns tore O hole in her in such
fashion that it let the river in, and
she filled and sank. l was exces-
sively proud of the achievement.
Butler had New Orleans at the
time, and, among other things, was
running the papers. Later l read
an account of my brush with the
ganboat In one OF Butler JUuruurs.
1t could not be called an unbiased
statement. 1t reviled me as o most
abandoned and bloodthirsty char
acter and declared that even after
the gunboat surrendered kept on
pouring shot into her as il my one
purpose in life was Wholesale mur-
der. Of course this was not so.
wouldn't have fired on anybody
after he had hauled his flag down,
and besides that / didn't have the
ammunition to waste.
after l rejoined the rest of my
battery following the exploit of the
gunboat l hunted trouble with the
Yankees more zealously than ever.
One day ! was fully gratifed. We
were still in Louisiana. The sun
came up one morning and found
some 10000 of us facing a largely
superior force of Yankees. We
couldn't have crawled out of o fight
even were we so disposed, but no
one suggested any retreat. The
fact was we felt quite cocky and
were full of belief that we could
whip the invaders. The fight be-
gan, and soon had my hearts
wish. l was in peck of trouble
with the Yankees, l and my battery.
l had succeeded in attracting the
attention and getting hearing, as
it were, from three Yankee batter
les all at once. They were rea-
sonably brisk outfit, and it didn't
take them a minute to get my range.
Then it began to rain sorrow and
hail despair for my battery.
ITO show you how hot those Yam
KEGS made it one only need to say
that they wounded or killed 40 of
my &C men and dismounted two of
my brass beauties in 80 minutes.
You might have planted corn where
my battery. stood when they got
through, it was SO plowed and har-
rowed by the Yankee fire.
Il was in the thick of the battle.
l was standing near the No. gun.
A man of the name of Thompson
was stepping forward with q shot
in his hands to load. Without q
word or cry he suddenly fell for.
ward on the gun and then slipped
to the ground, limp as a wet towel.
A cannon ball had torn through hi:
chest.
Il ordered a man to his place
| DoF1~o IL x-.- 49, :