The Pascagoula democrat-star. (Pascagoula, Miss.) 1878-1920, 1896-01-03
REvIcTUALLING vIcKSBURa.

REVICTUALLING VICKSBURG
THE OUTCOME OF A GREAT SCHEME Tc
SHOOT HARD TACK INTO THE CITY.
Buffalo Express.
Maj. Thos. Q. Farquhar, OF Annis
ton, Ala, on a visit to Buffat0 recent.
ly, told an Express reporter a humor
Gus story OF the war. During the
siege OF Vicksburg he was In com
fiand dUfTCUWfedefate regiment out
side OF Gen. Grants lines. "We had
plenty OF food" he said. ut was a
fertile territory we had to draw fro n,
and there was no difficulty In getting
enough to eat. We intercepted q
poorly1gnarded supply train of the
Yankees and had enough to feed a
regiment for month stored right III
our Iiuote calhp' snite of Yankee
vigilance, spies would now'ssal .le-,
steal out Of the city, and we saw and
talked with several of thems Each
had pitiful story to tell OF how the
Inhabitants OF Vicksburg suffered for
food, and we ransacked. our brains to
devise some means Of sending them a
portion of our plenty.
IAN old negro who was acting as a
gunner under me was the one to sug-
gest what looked at FIRST like a FEAST
bic plan. His idea was to load sup
plies into the fouE cannons which we
had and fire them boldly over the
heads Of the Yankees into the city it.
self. 1t was a great idea, and after
some study we decided that it was
worth while making the experiment.
The supplies which we had captured
consisted of hardtack in tins, that
would go into the guns like grapeshot,
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 command 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 powder in each, and then rammed
home as many cans OF hardtack as
would equal in weight an ordinary
cannon ball, and that was not Z great
many, l assure you. In one OF the
guns we put four cans OF tomatoes.
This we considered an experiment, as
we had little hope that such fluid
stuff would survive the impact Of fall
ing in the city, but it was worth try
ing. We pointed the guns, and just
before the lanyard Of the first gun
was pulled the old negro gunner ran a
a few rods down the hill, where he
would be below the line OF smoke and
able to see where our novel shot
struck.
"rhe first gun to be fred happened
to be the one we had loaded with to-
matoes. The gunner pulled the Ian
yard, there was a roar and apuff Of
smoke that obscured our sight for an
instant, then it blew away and 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,
I'm killed I'm killed Oh Lord have
masy on my soul " We were alarmed
and ran down toward him. He still
screamed and shricked and fell 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. 1t reused old Tom, who
opened his eyes and sllrieked the louder
when he saw our apparently inhuman
,eyity. AS soon as we were able to
speak or move we picked the old negro
up, stood him on his feet to assure
him that he was still alive, and then
ordered him to scrapc the tomatoes
of himself. He was the most thorough
I " 6edsahsasal, sahaa -saecimen l ever saw.
You see, the heat Of the discharge ~
tlss cannon melted the solder In TIN
tomato cans, and they had sinipl,
dropped TO pieces on leaving the.gu
while their contents had been pro
PEELED just far enough down the hil
to spatter all over the old negro.
The major paused and chucklcd again
GLOW did the hardtack work {?
asked the reporter.
I'VE didn't get q chance to try 1t,
! was the reply. "The Yanks, thinking
that we were about to lombard then
from the rear, started up the hill afte
us, and as there would shave been NJ
use in making any resistance against
so superior q force we spiked the gun
and rctrcated. What they though
when they found the hardtack II
them l never learned, but I suppos,
It only confirmed their idea that ",
were going to attack them"