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

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ger and the continual bombardment,
the gaunt soldiers of the Inflated Con-
federacy were worn down to mere
bundles of nerves.
On the night of June %, '63, the city
fell into a fitful slumber. Curiously
the Federal batteries, both above and
below, had been silent all the long op-
pressiye afternoon. Not shell had
been fired into the town. The soldiers
could not understand it. They had
becorle so accustomed to the steady
bombardment that without the sullen
boom of the big guns and the crash of
bursting shells Vicksburg seemed
strangely still.
The pickets were doubled at all the
ont-posts in expectation of night at
tack, and at the batteries that formed
a long line on the heights above the
guncrews had made everything in read
mess to serve the cannon at mo-
ment's notice. The guns were all
heavily loaded and the crews were un-
usually alert.
However, nothing broke the stiffness
save the hoarse believing of myriads of
bull-frogs in the bayous along the river
front. The whip poor-wills sang their
weird song undisturbed, and the night
wore along devoid of happening.
The watch at Battery ID was sitting
on a big nine-inch Columbian gazing
at the crescent moon as it sank to rest
behind the willow-fringed banks of the
Louisiana shore of the Mississippi. He
was thinking of his home in far
off Georgia; of the dark-eyed ''girl he
left behind" and of his mother and
sisters. He was wondering when hos
tilities would cease, when he could see
his sweetheart again, and
What was that dark object coming
so silently down the river?
Undoubtedly it was something in the
shape of craft, but what could it be?
He rubbed his eyes and looked again.
He was not certain whether to give
the alarm or not. 1t might merely be
a flatboat, and there might be friends
on board who had made their way past
the Federal batteries above.
No, it was steamer. From the two
tunnels was now pouring a dense vol
ume of smoke and lurid flame. It's
outlines were becoming visible. Clear
ly all steam was being piled on in or
der TO get by the Confederate guns hur-
riedly. He looked again; it was a
queer-looking craft, one of those moni-
tors, perhaps that he had heard so
much about the Yankees using.
Suddenly a tongue of flame was seen
to squirt from the monitor and the
| deafening crash of a heavy gun was
heard. The boat was now midway be-
tween the Confederate batteries, and
was right before the city, opposite the
strongest works.
The sentry was paralyzed at such
audacity. He jumped from his seat on
the big cannon, adjusted a cap and
| pulled the lanyard. There was roar
that shook the Notifications. The
Confederate lines were now aroused.
The sleepy gunners tumbled from their
beds and TO their posts. Just below
Battery f opened fire on the enemy.
The thunderous jar of the heavy seige
pieces was punctuated by the vicious
bark of the twelve and twenty-pound-
ers. The water of the Mississippi was
churned into a veritable maelstrom by
the bursting shells, the ricocheting
solid shot and the the thick hail of can
mister. All the batteries were in work
ing order and they were all vomiting
their deadly hail toward one common
centre. From all along the line of al
most a mile the hundred cannon were
fired at the gunboat as it drifted along
with the current.
Clearly she was disabled, for no reply
was made to the land batters. But
they wanted to make the job complete
and the cannon were served faster and
faster. The noise was terrific. The
Federal mortars up the river opened
up, as did those below, and began drop
ping shells into the city. The flashes
from the many cannon as they were
fired rapidly cast a red glare through
the suffocating haze of powder smoke.
The garrison was massed at the outer
works ready to receive the supposed
attack by the land forces under Grant.
But the attack never materialized.
The soldiers and officers were be-
wildered. No one knew definitely
what the row was about. The soldiers
thought that it meant a simultaneous
attack by river and land; and the artil-
lerymen were of the opinion that the
gunboat was sent down the river as a
! advertisement to draw the attention of
| the garrison from the defenses in the
rear of the city. The artillery fire
slackened, and at last ceased. Day was
breaking, but the dense cloud of pow
der smoke and mist had settled over
the river so that nothing could be seen.
Everybody was at loss to account for
| the demonstration of the night before,
and all awaited the result with ankle
ty. At last the mist drifted away.
There was nothing to be seen. The
great "Father of Waters ran on as 81
lently, as peacefully as if his bosom
! had never been torn with shot and
shell. There was no gunboat, no
wreckage-nothiEg to be seen except
the placid water flowing swiftly toward
the Gulf.
In the later days of the seige the
"mysterious monitor" formed the topic
for innumerable conversations, but
solution of the mystery could never be
arrived at. Even after the surrender
the Federals could throw no light on
the mystery.
The world knows the result of the
siege. On July 4, 1868. General Penn
berton and his want and famine-wast-
ed soldiers laid down their arms, and
the stars and stripes waved over the
Mississippi from its source to its mouth.
The war has been ended nearly
quarter of century. On the front
n.