The Beaumont enterprise. [volume] (Beaumont, Tex.) 1904-current, 1904-09-07
Soldiers Early Experience.

through which he passed Is dehr
especially so the little striking events
OF his early soldier days, writes an
Eastern veteran. My regiment, the
Fourteenth Rhode Island Heavy Artil'
lery. was stationed AZ enc time At Fort
Jackson. on the Mississippi river, 10
miles above its mouth, recall that
fully one.third OF cur battalion Were
schoolboys like myselI-all willing to
grow boards and To become sturdy
lighting men.
Our officers, too, were new to the
business of war-having been made
such after hasty study of the first
seventy pages OF the army regulations
making IL plain that we must have
training as well as pluck! that we
were all supposed to have in order To
escape the whipping and final annihi'
lation said to be in store for us al
the horny hands of our opponents, the
Texas cowboys. A little later 1000 OF
these cowboys were compelled TO
tether their mustangs and lay down
their arms by us-but this is a d.
grcssion..'
a little episode of camp life while
at Fort Jackson will serve to show
how promptly we took our first de-
gree in riding the goat" through
| cascmate to parapet, when a genuine,
soul-stirring cause for alarm came gal
loping into camp in the majestic fern
of our surgeon, DR.. Carpenter, who
| brought the startling news that the
rebel ram Isaac Webb was on the way
down the river, having passed New
| Orleans flying the Confederate nag
The Isaac Webb was formerly one OF
New Yorks fastest ocean-Going tug
boats. Her speed was II knots an
| hour.
We were mighty quickly formed in
to lines and marched double quick up
to the big PARROTS overlooking the
river. We carried our Springiields
which we loaded and stacked, then
shotted the 11-inch guns and the Par
rotts, and trailed to point-blank range
every we'll known ship course OF the
river within our view. Then we impa-
| tiently awaited the coming of the ram,
| and while we waited tCycd with our
| Adams apple, screwed up our knock
kneed courage Chat so woefully wab'
| bled AGAIN. to the fighting pitch, and
remained full of speechless wonder
and surprise.
But where was the Webb! We
stood up, looked, listened, then looked
again-but the calm and peaceful riV-
err gave no sign of her approach. The
suspense was so great that 1t inter-
fered with our breathing; we could
hear nothing but the tap, tap, tap OF
an organ which seemed to have risen
and to be lying near our tongues, But
where was the ram that cur doughty
doctor had told us was coming? AT
every successive point on that part
of the broad river in our view we
! locked, fully expecting her to poke her
| nose around and come on defiant.
As the day wore on the depressing
| atmosphere became more clear. we
stood erect, feeling quite Jubilant,
when suddenly a startling exclamation
caused all eyes to turn.
"Iook! look What is that coming
out of the west?" CHANGING backward
we saw something, dust-hdden, riding
swiftly, and to bur imaginative minds
suspiciously toward the fort. Could it
! be possible that our rear was to be
! the point of attack?
One more gulp of the Adams apple
! and silent remembrance of the mis-
! GemeanCrs and shortcomings OF our
career. a hasty praycr-then, sudden
" out of the clouds of dust came our
relief. bringing Intelligence that the
ram had herself been rammed and
sunk, after having been driven ashore
! 10y the Union gunboat Richmond
which had passed mp the river the
preceding night: thus putting -- '-!
to the fearful risk that the Webb took
! wi an attempting to pass our fort, and
| blottiug from our record a part Of the
/ glory that tradition would have added
10 the callantry and valor afterware
F, accorded the Fourteenth Rhode Island
/ Heavy Artillery. and which we are
proud to write, stopped forever the
! juggling with the guns that was said
must be used to goad VS. into action.
IN those historic Cos we never On
/ couutered another such memorable
test Of courage and bewildering sus
perse as on that doubtful day in the
7 time II our uOyitiate.