The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1895-11-07
Battery I, ed III. L A.


EDITOR NATIONAL TRIBUNE: In Their
Records" column of Oct "a / notice a
most wonderful production from the pen
of Comrade III. Skinner regarding the serv-
ice of Battery /, I'd III. L. A., in the late I'M
pleasantness. / have read in histories and
by would-be writers of history in magazines
and other publications, and have in my pos
session manuscript by various ones, accounts
of battles of the late war and of the perform
ances of various commands and individuals.
which put to shame even Mark Twain's war
map of the Franco-Prussian war. How
breath-taking would the perusal of such
stuff be, could it only be anywhere near the
truth.
have a very large pile of manuscript
written by sundry members of Battery /
purportiug to tell all about what great
things that battery did, even to the soldiers
taking their stockings, or something about
like it, to muffle the wheels of the guns
when they were-well, the members OF the
battery cannot agree as to where they were,
and / shall not tell them here. Comrade
Skinner surpasses them all.
Now, whether the comrade endeavored to
see how much of stretch his imagination
could stand without swapping, or whether
| one must charge it to his IL years
and 90 seconds, which he may not
yet have got beyond, that was the cause OF
that article, / cannot conjecture. If the
former, the article ought to be on your
funny page. If the latter, doubt not his
comrades will endeayor to get him some
where near the track before he writes more
to pass as the work of that battery. He
says his battery fired the last gun at Benton
| vile. May be it fired the last gun, but not
the last shot. His Captain was not aware
that the battery fired shot from the time
it left Savannah until the close of the war,
except on March 10, 1865. Perhaps they
did their firing when Capt Rich was asleep.
The comrade ought to know his former
| Captains name, the one killed at Dr.
Cuyler's plantation, Dec. 9, 1854 1t was
AI0nzo w. Coe, not Cole, and it will be hard
! to find anyone else who heard of his being
| killed in that manner. Yes, that battery
wore out several sets of guns, wore them so
much that there were but thin shells left TO
them, and this was all done treble-shotting
them with grape Did the comrade ever see
any grapeshot?) when the rebels were only
Is feet and two inches from their guns.
They never thought of firing until the rebels
were that close, and they were never
satisfied unless the rebels charged seven
times What they preferred was to have
the JohnDies come up so they could
pound them with their canteens.
When that occurred the rebels never made
another charge. Occasionally, at long range,
the battery would be induced to send shot
lust to show what splendid gunners the pos
tillions were. Then the air was sure to be
filled for mile or so with fragments of rebel
Generals, horses, cats, slippers (Gen. Fitz-
patrick's), splinters of houses, etc. The sur
vivOrs of the battery who had the manu-
script ready for publication, supposed to bt
full history of the battery. 1t must now
be rewritten and made to conform to Com
rade SINNERS yarn.
Battery 1 was q good battery, and I'M
doubtedly deserves to have a truthful RECORD
published of the part it took in the preserVa
ton of the Nation; but such illusions a
that of COmrade Skinner and many more VIII
have pretended to tell what it did at variou
times and places, can but hurt it in the esti
nation of all who reason. Those who know
the history of the battery only smile at sue
fables.-G. E. BOLTON, st. Louis, Mo.
, 4 UnI