The San Francisco call., 1896-11-27
GUNS LOADED WITH FOOD.
The Novel Experiment Tried by a Con
federate Of1cer.

The Novel Experiment. Tried by Con-
federate Oficer.
Major Thomas @. Farquhar of Annis-
ton, Ala, on visit to Buffalo recently,
told a Buffalo Express reporter humor-
Gus story of the war. During siege OF
Vicksburg he was in command of Con-
federate regiment outside of General
Grants lines.
1--WE had plenty of food" he said. at
was fertile territory that we had to draw
from and there was no difficultyin get
ting enough to eat. We intercepted
poorly guarded supply train of the Yanks
and had enough to feed regiment for a
month stored right in our little camp.
In spite of Yankee vigilance spies would
now and then steal out of the city and we
saw and talked with several of them,
Each had pitifuI story to tell of how
the inhabitants of Vicksburg suffered for
food and we ransacked our brains to de-
wise some means OF sending them por-
tion of our plenty.
IAN old negro who was acting as gun
ner under me was the one to suggest what
looked like feasible plan. His idea was
to load supplies into the four cannon
which we had and fire them boldly over
the heads of the YANKEES into the city
Itself. 1t was great idea, and after some
study we decided that ii was worth while
making the experiment. The supplies
which we had captur consisted uf hard
tack, in tins, that would go into the guns
like grape shot, and we calculated that by
giving them plenty of elevation we could
send the food directly into the city, where
even such morSels would be welcome. |
was in com mand of the detachment and
gave my consent to what an older and
more experienced officer would probably
have froWned upon as being contrary to all
rules of war.
Next morning at sunrise we loaded the
guns. We put plentiful charge of pow
der in each and then rammed home as
many cans of hardtack as would equal in
weight an ordinary cannon bail, and that
was not great many, l assure you. In
one of the guns we put four cans of toma-
toes. This we considered an experiment,
as we had little hope that such fluid stuff
would survive the impact of falling in the
city, but it was worth trying. We pointed
the guns and just before the lanyard of
the first was pulled the old negro gunner
ran few rods down the hill, where he
would be below the line of smoke and able
10 see where our novel shot struck.
s'The first gun fired happened to be the
one we had loaded with tomatoes. The
gunner pulled the lanyard, there was a
roar and puff of smoke that obscured
our sight for an instant; then it blew
away ana we saw running up the hill
toward US our old negro. covered from
head to foot with what looked like blood.
while he waved his arms wildly and
shrieked, Il N killed I'm killed o Lord,
have mercy upon MY soulr We were
alarmed and ran toward him. He still
screamed and shrieked and iell down in a
faint as he saw US. We rushed up to him,
and then every man of us burst into a
laugh that would have walked the dead.
sit reused old Tom, who opened his
our apparently inhuman levity. AS soon
picked the old negro up. stood him on his
and then ordered him to scrape the toma-
toes off himself. He was the most thor
oughly bedaubed specimen / ever saw.
Y on see, the heat of the discharge of the
cannon melted the solder in the tomato
cans and they had simply dropped to
pieces on leaving the gun. while their
contents had been propelled just far
enough down the hill to spatter all over
the old negro" The major paused and
chuckled again.
How did the hardtack work ?" asked
the reporter.
1--WE didn't get chance to try it." was
the reply. 1.-THE Yanks, thinking that we
were about to bonn bard them from the rear,
started up the hill after US. and as there
would have been no use in making any re-
sistance against SO superior force we
spiked the guns and retreated. What
they thought when they found the hard
tack i'll them | never learned, but sup
pose it only confirmed their idea that we
were going to attack them.'