The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1898-08-02

rather hot after a time and the signal
men had to squat down behind the
sides of the belfry and WAYS their flags
without exposing themselves. This they.
could do very nicely, and they had the
satisfaction of knowing thai the Johnny
s-harpshooters were swearing mad, for it
would do them no possible good to shoot
at the flags and would not prevent the
sending of messages. unless the Dag was
shot from the staff, in which case it would
speedily be replaced by another.
At Malvern Hill Mr.. Botticher's squad
performed a valuable service in helping
the gunboats in the river to get the proper
range of the enemy as the battle began.
Mr.. Botticher was up ii the crows nest
of a gunboat, what is called a fighting
top now. It had sides of iron and thus Of
fered good protection. Two or three miles
away, across the river, was the other sig
nal station, which was within full sight
Of the enemy as he advanced against Nc
Clellan. The gunboats opened fire. There
were some bluffs to shoot over and the
sailors of course had to cant the guns
upward to quite a high angle. Mr.. Bot
ticher says thai when the %gunboat he
was on discharged its first shot. the craft
had a pronounced list to one side, just
before the gun was fred, by reason of
the raising of the gun. When the shot
was fired the ship swung over, and he
and his men in the fighting top were given
a free ride which was likely to send them
spinning out into space. They chung on,
however, and as the top wa at her per-
pe~ndicular again, riveted their eyes on
the signal station across the river, which
presently signalled hat the shot was too
far to the right. The men in the lighting
top at once notified the officers of the
ship below that they must shoot more to
the left. BY degrees the range was found,
and the enemy soon found that shells
were dropping in its ranks, as from a
clear sky.
Speaking of the skill and patience need
ed in night signalling, Mr.. Botticher tells
how one night he and his men. all save
one, had retired for the night in their
shanty near the station. when the man on
watch anne rushing to the house and
reused them, saying the next station
wanted to talk. Out they all poured and
in their rush some one kicked over the
telescope. Here was trouble, for without
the telescope it would be next to impossi-
Bile to locate the other station. n even
if you could detect the rockets. that did
not tell you where the signalling was go
ing on. To add to the embarrassment the
telescope was now out of focus, and how
was it to be got in again. since there was
nothing but all absorbing ~blackness
everywhere to test it ont Well, it took over
a quarter of an hour to find the other sig
nails, and all that time the men at the
other station were cudgelling their brains
to think what the matter was, for they
could see the ground torch of the station
they wanted to get, but could get no re-
Spouse to their queries. OF course, there
was an inquiry as to the cause of delay,
and the boys got out of what might have
been a bad muss for them by explaining
that they had kicked their telescope over
and lost both the direction and the focus.
| Fortunately. the message was not of the
greatest Importance. It might have been
something whose delay for five minutes
might have meant disaster, when there
would have been a thorough investigation.
The man who kicked over the telescope
and who had. as a matter of fact, not
been watching the other station closely,
might have been disciplined, Oftentimes
the oHlcef OF the StitloH Iell II III CllatSs
of the sergeant. knowing him to be as COM
petent to do the ordinary station work as
he was himself, and on this occasion the
officer happened to be away.
Frequently the signalmen built them
selves crowsnests in tree tops, and they
did this very often during the peninsula
campaign. 1t was their delight to find
! gear the desired spot three or four trees
| close together, when they would saw OFF
the tops of some of the branches, build a
could find, and make themselves cosy.