The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-03-21

After the first rush, in which regiments
and companies became badly mixed, we
settled down, five or six rods down hill
| from the guns, where The bullets did not
reach us from the front. But from the
| enemy's works on our right, as we came up
| the hill, where the ground was clear OF
bushes, they had a cross-fire on Us, and kest
sending bullets amongst u.s. This is where
they came from, when some have said our
own men fired into US from the rear. /
claim, and many others with me, that there
was no firing or battle near there that day.
till we started from the opposite ridge.
Afier we had been there some time the
White Star men began to come in there on
our left They came in where we were. and
We went short distance TO the left. in the
timber, and staid there until the next
morning.
During the night the Confederaies began
10 move out and retreated, and all of our
batteries opened on them, and shelled the
woods, making il as disagreeable as possible
for the enemy. In the meantime the guns
were dug out, or some dirt was dug away
from the front Of them, and they were
hauled out, and the next morning the guns
stood near the works. saw them there.
Notwithstanding Col. Gotham reports that
they were taken 10 Division Headquarters
by a. n. the night previous
Now, while we are at the fort and guns.
let me give some more facts not heretofore
stated. The fort was no fort at all. The
guns just stood there in a hollow of the
ground. There may sometime have been
digging there for rocks OF something else,
but the ground was all sodded over: there
was ridge in front Of the guns. There was
no ditch outside and in front, rs someone
has stated. The dirt was so low around
the guns that no one could stand there and
work them any more than if there had been
no hollow, the earth being but little higher
than the guns.
Can anyone say that a single person was
hurt by one of these guns that day? They
were old smoothbore 12-pound brass guns,
called Napoleons; our army would not haul
them around, and / presume The Confed-
crates bad come TO the same conclusion, and
they were put out there 10 bait a trap for
our men TO run into, and we did run into
the trap, and if our masked battery had not
silenced their battery in the road that bat
terry would have made it impossible for Us
10 stay on the side-hill, and there would
nave pecn more of us slaughtered that day.
Ihere was no ammunition around there,
except what was In the guns, and some slow
match fuses. The guns, or some of them.
were loaded 10 the muzzles, and the John
MES intended TO start the fuses. run and
leave them, and have the guns 20 off lust as
our men come up to them. But, by some
failure on their part, our boys were up 10
and in where the guns were before the fuses
were fired.
A man of my company by the name of
Edmund V. Monroe jumped through an
embrasure into where the guns were, and
looked into gun as be wentover, and when
he came back said: The Johnnies had tried
TO load the gun and could not get the charge
down, they were hurried So"
But when the guns we're drawn out we
knew where the trouble was. Tie guns
were loaded nearly 10 the muzzle and had
not been fired, and from positive aud circum-
stantial evidence it was quite plain that they
had been as silent as Quaker guns while
standing therA