Omaha daily bee., 1895-11-14

about the middle OF the line, who kept bang
ing away regardless. | spotted him and
made a rush Town his way.
Here, you blamed fool I exclaimed,
what do you mean by nring7 Didn't you
hear the order to cease?'
1T was my young enthusiast, about Ave
PAGES In advance Of the line, and he banged
away and dropped his gun.
What do you mean by that?' | said,
getting hot.
Excuse me, cap he responded with the
easy familiarity Of the volunteer. but | fined
the army to put down the rebellion, and dod
bob my skin If | amt goin' to do 1t as soon
as | can, and right here. too, II you give me
half a chance and he pulled up his gun, and
| had to threaten him with my sword before
| could quiet him. 1t wasn't bravado, either"
concluded the captain, "for the first man to
fall had dropped dead at his feet in the rank
in front of him, and what is more, 1t hadn't
been an hour before the scrap that the man
killed and the young fellow had a squabble
for the place in the front rank held by the
man who went down."
ARMY's IS MARKsMAN.
There is a soldier in troop G of the Second
cavalry, at Fort Wingate, AriZ., says a CORE
spcndent in the Boston Traveller, who bears
the distinction of being the best shot in the
United States army. He is Sergeant Henry
Henser, and not only is he a thorough cav
alryman in every sense of the word, a per-
feet carbine and pistol shot, but he mas had
some adventures that few men would have
lived through. l saw the sergeant the other
day in his comfortable quarters and obtained
a record of his wonderful shooting, as well
as the story of a desperate battle he had for
his life in Arizona in 1890, near Fort Hua-
chuca.
Sergeant Henser has served as a soldier
for almost nineteen years. He is a power
fully built, athletic man of about SO years of
age, a pleasant conversationalist and a thor
ough good fellow, so his comrades say.
In the distinguished marksmen's team shoot
in 1892 he won the celebrated Buffalo
medal, a huge gold adornment sought after
more, perhaps, than any other insignium of
craftsmanship to be found in the army. 1t
is larger than the governments gold medal
awarded to the winner of the army team
shoot. and it has to be won from the most
distinguished magksman in the service. He
scored 600 points in this shoot. In the same
competition in 1898, at Fort Sheridan, he
again won the Buffalo" medal, with
a score of $50. Some one tempered
with the sights of his carbine at
this shoot, and after he commenced
to fire he had to take a new carbine, about
which he knew nothing. He found that it
shot a trife too high. He allowed for this,
and won first prize in spite of the machina-
tons of his enemies. Again, in. last years
shoot, he captured the greatly priced "Buf-
falo' medal, and now has three of them, in
addition to the first prize medal Of the gov
~ NY iOl az u my "H' 49, "'es'h
decorations enough to cover his breast. He
has made the highest scores in skirmish
firing ever attained, namely, 40, III and
1874, out of a possible 200 points.
The shooting at these various competitions
is not still shooting by any means. Neither
are the distances from the targets known; ;
neither are the targets the great immense
square affairs at which the militia shoot at
Cre2dmor. The targets are silhouette figures
of soldiers. life size. One is standing in ths
act of firing a rife, another is kneeling, and
the third is lying prone upon the ground,
with only shoulders in sight. A hit on the
sanding target counts three, a hit on the
kneeling one four. and the lying figure counts
five when hit. The men are given forty
rounds of ammunition. They are
started toward the targets a;
4 distance of 500 yards. They
are commanded to halt at some point, the
| distance of which is known to them, between
500 yards and 2G0 yards from the targets.
They must fire one shot at each stop, and
there are five halts each way, going and
coming. The second shot is fired at an I'M
| known distance further on, and the competi-
tor may fire as many or as few as he likes
| during the thirty seconds halt. He must es-
innate his distance, arrange his sights, allow
for windage, load his piece at each shot and
respond promptly to the call to stop firing
and advance to the next halt. OF course, the
men are very expert in the handling of their
carbines. They will drop to the ground like
4 shot, with their fingers full Of cartridges,
| and, at the closest ranges, will fire from ten
to thirteen shots at the targets in thirty sec
| onds, and hit the targets every time. Ser
| geant Henser is thought to be a better shot
today than he has ever been, and if he does
not win the Buffalo" again this year, some
one will have TO shoot very fast and very
p.nll 70 o,r. him