The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1897-03-31

thing with its silvery radiance and the
scent of the magnolias and cape jes
samine load the balmy air with heavy
fragrance. In the distance on hill
side is seen the CLEAN of the marble
monuments in the National Cemetery
standing like ghostly sentinels whers
ten thousand soldiers who wore the
blue "sleep the sleep that knows nc
waking
1.-The last time was down in this
country | was not accorded such wei.
come as | have received this time, Col
onel Merrill" remarked one of the
visitors, Captain Coke. "I was with
Grant, you KNOW" he added. Then
war stories became the order of the
evening. Colonel Merrill related the
story of the mysterious monitor as one
of the best incidents of the siege.
Captain Coke listened attentively
until the recital was finished.
"Now," said he, al have a story to
tell"
''Good, good! Let's have it," ex-
claimed the others.
Captain Coke Lit a fresh cigar, tilted
his chair back against the gallery rail-
ing and began.
''As / remarked while ago, / was
with Grant in '63. | was a younster
at the time, only 2l years of age and
full of life and mischief. L was detail
ed with others of my command in some
rifle pits above Vicksburg. There were
four of us youngsters in the pit nearest
the river brink and furthest from our
lines. We were all from the same Ohio
town and had been in mischief from
our boyhood days on up.
"The monotony of staying in that
hole in the ground and listening to the
boom of our mortars as they fired shells
into the city was getting unbearable
We began to cast about for something
TO do to amuse ourselves.
There was an old flatboat tied to the
bank little above -one of these
regular old Mississippi river scows-
and bright idea struck me. One
night we cast the boat loose, and the
next morning saw it safely tied in
front of our rifle pit. Some negroes
came near Us one day and we arrested
them and put them to work telling
them that they were to help the United
States Government out.
"There was a deserted negro cabin
about three hundred yards away in the
midst of an old field, and we stripped
it of boards. Then, with the negroes
TO help us, We went TO work to build
US gunboat. 1t was a fearful and
wonderful craft, built in imitation of a
monitor. We found an old cracked
nine-inch cannon on an abandoned
Confederate earthwork, and by dint of
hard labor and united effort got it on
board. Finally all was in readiness.
The round turret was made of boards
and painted over with tar so as to re-
semble iron as much as possible. Four
empty powder kegs piled one on the
other furnished the smokestacks. In
the turret we had arranged sort of
furnace of old tin and scrap iron, and
this we filled with fat pine and damp
cotton, so that it would make a dense
smoke and flame issue out of the smoke
stacks at the same time.
''One of the negroes we had pressed
into services hung around the ordi-
nance officers headquarters until he
managed to steal enough powder for
our purpose. Then We loaded that old
cracked cannon to the very muzzle. A
rudder was attacked to the boat so it
would 90 down stream without turn
ing round and round, and then We
were ready to have some fun. a slow
fuse was fixed to the old gun, and we
then, at the dead of night, towed the
Terror rs we named her, out in mid
stream. When We got around the
bend and in direct range of the Con-
federate cannon on the heights of
Vicksburg, one of the boys touched a
match to the pine and trash in the
furnace and | applied a light to the
fuse on the cracked cannon. Then we
got into our skif and pulled for dear
life for the shore.
ain less than five minutes that old
craft looked like a terror sure enough.
She was going down the swift current
six miles an hour, and the fire and
smoke was juse belching out Of her
tunnels. And then, when she got
right opposite the strongest Confeder-
ate batteries that gun on board fired.
al never heard such an unearthly
racket in all my life as it provoked.
AS soon as the gun exploded some fell
low fired a great big siege piece from
the works on the hill, and then the
entire Confederate line took it up.
Our batteries above and below COM
menced shelling the city, and until
nearly day it was lively, I'll assure you.
But we four young men had big time
and lots of fun soaring the Johnny
Rebs in Vieksburg."
III