The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1896-01-02
LAST FIGHT IN ARMOR.
It Occurred in the French Army
in the Time of Napoleon.
Eow Soldiers, Heavily Covered with Steel.
Spiked Some Coveted Cannon-A Story
from the bays of the Vic
torIous Emperor.

''The Last Fight in Armor,"
Temple Bar calls a curious incident
in the time of Napoleon.
The incident in question occurred
II the town of Aquila. in 1899. The
main army of the French having
withdrawn, a body of some 400 SOL
diers remained in the place, whose
inhabitants were well-disposed to-
ward them.
But the peasants of the surround
ing region were bitterly hostile, and
rising in revolt penetrated the town
and drove the Frenchmen into the
fortress, which was small and weak,
yet powerful enough to hold the in
surgents at bay with its cannon.
The insurgents numbered 10000
or 1900. They barricaded the
streets and ioopholed the houses so
that they were safe from attack; but
this did not satisfy them. They
wished to take the fort, which, with
out artillery, was manifestly impos-
sible. Finally, some cunning brain
devised scheme which came near to
being successful.
Between the fort and the nearest
houses there lay on the glacis, with
out carriages and resting upon pieces
of wood, twelve guns which the
French had not had time to take into
the fort with them. The position of
the guns exposed them to fire from
both sides, SO it was not thought
they would be interfered with,
though by way of precaution two of
the guns of the fortification were
kept trained upon them.
One night the sentinel heard
noise. He fired, but the noise con-
tinued and did not Immediately cease
after other shots. though it seemed
to draw farther off. When daylight
came, it was seen that, under cover
of darkness, the insurgents had
reached the nearest gun, attached a
rope to the breech, and then, fasten-
ing the rope to capstan in the
nearest house, had attempted to haul
the piece away.
Had a military man tried the same
trick he would have succeeded; but
the peasants did not know enough
to thrust rollers under the gun be-
fore hauling, and consequently the
breech Gug furrow into the soil,
which soon became deep enough to
stop further progress.
Nevertheless the besieged were
much exasperated, and determined
to prevent all further attempts.
They cannonaded the house from
which the rope issued, but when the
walls fell they found that the cap
stan was in the cellar, and conse-
quentlv uninjured, although blocked
for the time by debris. This did not
content them.
Then it was that the commandant
of the fort remembered having seen
slowed away in it somewhere dozen
suits of ancient armor. He selected
IL Of his coolest men, gunners and
grenadiers, clothed them in this
armor, and sent them out to spike
the guns.
Covered with steel from head to
foot, and carrying spikes and ham,
mers, the men marched heavily and
awkwardly out of the fort and moved
in dead silence toward the coveted
guns, the white smoke curling about
their mailed figures, and bullets pat
tering harmlessly against antique
helm and corselet. Many of the
peasants were horror struck and be-
lieved the strange figures to be dia
bolical and invulncrable; while after
the first anxious moment was passed,
their own comrades, looking from
the walls, broke into cxultant roars
Of laughter
The u gallant latter day knights
returned safely from their raid, hav-
ing spiked the guns and cut the rope.
Though many times hit, they had
but one wound amongst ,bem-a
slight ore received by a soldier who
had wrongly adjusted "brassart,"
so that it fell off and left his arm ex
posed. The insurgents were dis
couraged, and though the blockade
continued there was little more
fighting. and the besieged were soon
relieved by their friends.