The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1901-11-14
SOLDIERS AT HOME.
THEY TELL SOME INTERESTING
ANECDOTES OF THE WAR.

How the Boys of Both Armies whiIed
Away Life In tamp-ForaEing Ex-
periences, Tiresome Marches-Thrii-
ling Scenes on the Battlefield.
1T seems preposterous, said the Ser
geant. Ito fire Il whole battery at one
candle. And yet that is what the rebS
did ut Kenesaw. The lines of our di-
vision in front of kenesaw were screen
ed by woods, but We're in fact COM
manded by rebel battery OF twelve
guns on the top of the mountain. well
protected by earthworks. If the rebel
gunners caught sight of Il man or a
tent fly during the day or Il lighted can
die at night they would turn their
twelve guns loose and sweep that par
ticular spot with shot and shell.
I'VE We're protected by eartlworks.
but this disposition of the enemy To fire
on the slightest provocation made us
very careful. but not careful enough.
About midnight on June - Surgeon
Wilson of the 18th Ohio was dressing
the wounds of one of his men. and call
ed for candle and for two men TO as
sist him. The hospital was in the rear.
but no sooner was the candle lighted
than the rebels blaZed away with full
battery. and n solid shot carried away
4 leg of each of the surgeons two as
| sistantS. The rebS fired 1T the candle.
/, and the result showed that their aim
was accurate.
while our earthworks were proof
against shot and she'll the men could
not remain in the trenches all the time,
so 1t was arranged that some men
should watch the battery. while the
others would seek relief from the heat,
outside the trenches. and ut signal
from the watchers get under cover But
men under such Il strain get desperate
ly tired, as well as needless and reck-
less. On June p, when the rebel bat
teries opened. Sergeant James Leeper
OF Company c. SJth Illinois. was lying
in the shade not ten feet from the
trenches. He saw the danger signal,
but did not move, and was instantly
killed by shell.
This artillery fire was as distressing
to general officers as to the men in the
trenches. Brigade. division. and corps
headquarters We're all in the rear. but
still within range of the rebel battery
on the mountain. and Major Generals
and Brigadiers had no carthworks to
shelter them. One day Captain Wise
II Iirrto ,r 81,
Brigade of our division. went over to
corps headquarters. The rebels had
just shelled each headquarters impair
tally and vigorously. the wind having
swayed the tree branches enough TO
give the artillerists a glimpse of the
tents.
''The ground in the vicinity of corps
headquarters was literally covered with
limbs torn from the trees. and tents
We're torn by shot and shell. In the
midst of the desolation. and behind Il
tree, sat Major General John NJ. Pal
mer. commanding the corps. He was in
his shirt sleeves and was tanning him
self vigorously. casting an occasional
glance upward to where a solid shot
had cut off the top of his tree. After
Wiseman had transacted his business
and was turning TO leave. Palmer said:
'Adjutant, don't you wish this cruel
war was over?'
Under the existing circumstances
Wiseman said he did. Then Palmer
added: 'Adjutant, present my compli-
ments to General Morgan and say to
him that these headquarters will move !
Us soon rs darkness will permit That !
was like Palmer. and he no doubt was |
as glad as any of us when he was en- |
abled to get out of range of that noun |
tain battery. Whenever l hear men |
talk of artillery fire being comparative
ly harmless. think of the terrible work |
of those rebel artillerists on Kenesaw
Mountain, who fired at everything from |
a candle up to Major General, and |
hit most of the things they fired at. |
We We're under that harassing, merci-
less fire for nearly week
1T is customary now TO underrate
artillery fire and to sneer at reports of
bayonet charges, but ut Jonesboro. in
September, 1864, our men charged on
the rebel works with empty guns and
fixed bayOnets. They We're met by
furious artillery and musket fire. but
they carried the works and captured
the force defending them. Three BROTH
ers named Noe, of the 10th Kentucky.
went over the rebel parapet together,
and two of them pinned their adver-
saries to the ground with the bayonet.
In fact. on no other battlefield in which
Sherman's troops participated was the
use of the bayOnet so general. and no
of the several about At
lanta was more decisive. We captured
ZOO prisoners. = batteries, 1,eOO mus
kets. and battle flags
when we started forward with
empty guns at Il right shoulder shift
the strain on the men was fearful. At
such times the pressure ON nerve and
brain was a something not to be real
sOned with, and it was not strange that
4 few men became panic stricken.
Just as the line was being adjusted
for the real charge three men broke
from the ranks of one of the regi-
ments and ran back into the fields.
While running up the side of Hill,
seemingly beyond the danger line, they
were struck by Confederate shell
md two of them literally torn into frag-
nents. That shell had passed harm
esSly over the heads of the men charg-
ng in front and killed the panic-strick-
IN men in the rear.'-Chicago inter
Ocean. '
AmbushinE Bushwh=cxer.
When the war feeling in East Tel.nes-
zee had become so bitter that all Union
men had TO flee from their homes or re-
main at the peril of their lives, a noun
aineer named Alexander Brown left
lis wife and two children TO make his 5